Divorce Papers: A Slow Burn by Leslieann Hobayan

In these poems, which are by turns tender and brutally honest, Leslieann Hobayan writes directly into the dissolution of a certain way of being in the world and the radical reconstruction of another, gloriously luminous, life.

–Camille Dungy, author of Trophic Cascade

To trace dissolution as oath, as testimony, is a radical act of orbiting back to one’s primal essence. In Divorce Papers: A Slow Burn by Leslieann Hobayan, the intimate, epistolary address takes on bold, visceral octaves––from speaker to the looming ex, her beloved children, the future self––rendering personal contemplations as communal insights. Hobayan archives the disintegration of a marriage to survey forlorn devotion, shifting power dynamics, and emergent ardor amidst a global crisis. Fissures are laid bare, probed, and offered up like incantations and anthems to declare: “So I refuse this union // dispute its viability // break off, break free––”

–Su Hwang, author of Bodega

Candid, probing, determined, these poems chronicle a woman’s fierce defense of her sense of selfhood during her marriage’s disintegration. Here are poems that track critical turning points as she extends her knowledge about her own needs, knowledge that she has labored to earn. These spirited, unflinching poems—with their exceptional clarity—extend meaning beyond the slow burn of a long marriage, for they explore how new growth may follow a conscious commitment to change.

–Lee Upton, author of Visitations: Stories and Bottle the Bottles the Bottles the Bottles: Poems