Cameron Awkward-Rich

Cameron Awkward-Rich is the author of Sympathetic Little Monster (Ricochet Editions, 2016), which was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. He is a Cave Canem fellow, a poetry editor for Muzzle Magazine, and his second collection of poetry, Dispatch, is forthcoming from Persea Books in December 2019. Also a critic, Cameron earned his PhD from Stanford University's program in Modern Thought & Literature, and he is an assistant professor of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Currently, he is working on a book about maladjustment in trans literature and theory. Source

Love Poem

Dear Proofreader,

you’re right. It is warped.

My syntax, a sentence

on myself: third person

absent pronouns. I’m glad

you liked the article

about gender & interpretation.

Glad to grace your pages

wearing this ink

dress. Just what I wanted

I couldn’t tell you

all those Christmas nights

of family, trying

to decipher their mutant

kin. Yes, I’m certain

the fault is mine. I

a fault line, been falling

through the fissure

all my life.

At the bottom of the problem?

[ ]

& at the bottom

of language, an animal

prayer & at the bottom of prayer

let me assure you

tangled fur, my proper name.

Published:

2019

Length:

Shorty

Literary Movements:

Contemporary

Anthology Years:

2022

2023

Themes:

Identity

LGBTQ+ Experience

Poetic Form