A vivid, powerful anthology of poems by and for young women, giving voice to a new generation of international poets, with themes of feminism, empowerment, resilience, confidence, and integrity.
SMEAR: Poems For Girlspresents a curated, all-female lineup of poets from different countries and addresses issues of trauma, survivorship, independence, and body positivity. As described on Dazed.com:"The poetry collection celebrating the imperfect, frank woman,SMEARis chronicling the voices of women, unapologetically confronting self-image, body autonomy and our relationships with each other."
The first North American edition of SMEAR will include an expanded selection of poems from international woman poets.
My Review:
Rating: 3/5 stars.
Firstly, I would like to thank NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for an eARC of SMEAR: Poems for Girls, for an honest review.
I started this anthology really excited to read on because the first few poems by Katherine Vermillion were really relatable and I felt like I was finally reading real poetry rather than 'Insta Poetry' which has become such a big trend. It was a shame that this didn't last because a lot of the poems after this were confusing. I have read a few other reviews that have stated an amount of confusion because of the way some of the poems are written. I understand that you don't always understand the meaning of poems straight away but you always have to consider your readers when publishing. The fact that this anthology was such a mix bag of poetry made it very hard for me to enjoy reading it. It became a chore to read on because I wasn't sure whether I would be reading a poem I liked or disliked next.
I want to take a moment to mention the poets that I did enjoy because I think they deserve to be noticed. Greta Bellamacina (who is actually the editor of the anthology), Camille Bennett, Sarah Roselle Khan, and Sofia Mattioli. A few of the poems that stood out are 'Songs my Enemy Taught Me by Joelle Taylor, Girlhood Guns and You by Susan Bradley Smith, On Loss by Adanna Egu, and The Commandments of Woman by Billie Partridge-Naudeer.
The layout of the book was very neat and clean which is really appealing to me. I can't say I'm the biggest fan of the front cover. They covered a huge range of topics to do with growing up as a girl and womanhood. Overall, this book was a very mixed bag. I couldn't rate it more that 3 stars because of this.
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