Skin Splitting

by Bryanna Licciardi

Overview

Skin Splitting, Bryanna Licciardi's debut poetry collection, ventures to the dark side--of humor, of cultural history, of being a woman today--and turns on a light for us, triumphantly exposing a body rife with flaws and obsessions. Licciardi doesn't just laugh at her fears--she tries to date them. Drawing from quirky news and history, shameful coming of age memories, and imagined dates with serial killers, these poems consume everything. From the mundane to the insane, Licciardi devours both fact and fantasy down to a shining carcass of truth. Skin Splitting was a finalist for the international 2016 RL Poetry Award and was "highly commended" by the 2016 Fool for Poetry International Chapbook Competition. Licciardi's poem "Pack," included in this collection, was nominated for a 2017 Pushcart Prize by Inklette Magazine. This collection delivers a feminist, hilarious, strange, and much-needed voice to the modern reader.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781635342963
Publisher:	Finishing Line Press
Publication date:	09/01/2017
Pages:	44
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.11(d)

About the Author

Bryanna Licciardi resists the question, "Where are you from?" She has lived all over the country-California, Texas, Michigan, Massachussetts, Louisiana-and currently resides just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. She received her BA in English from Austin Peay State University and her MFA in Poetry from Emerson College. Currently, she's studying literacy in a doctoral program at Middle Tennessee State University, where she also works as an academic advisor. When she's not working on a new diet plan for her overweight cat, Bryanna writes poetry, fiction, essays and lectures. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in such publications as BlazeVOX, Cleaver Magazine, Poetry Quarterly, Adirondack Review, Study.com, and Luna Luna. More information about her work can be found at www.bryannalicciardi.com.

Table of Contents

Naked 1

Why We Aren’t Animals 2

At a Party, John Wayne Gacy puts his Arm around me and Says

We’ve all been there Before 4

Pack 6

We Normally Avoid Scotty’s House 7

On Leaving the Green River Killer 8

Pair Bonds 10

The Angel Makers and I Try to Bake a Cake 11

On Learning I am the Bully 12

Parasomnia 13

Someone Sets me up with Charles Manson 14

Skinned 15

Floating, Sinking 16

The French Ripper Takes me to a Hot Dog Stand 18

Trying to Reason with the Baby I Never Plan to Have 19

Specimen 20

Jeffrey Dahmer Invites me to a Dinner Party 21

I Put Her Back Under my Floor 23

The Grim Sleeper Takes me Hiking Before his Execution 24

Perspective 25

Sunday Morning Slasher Dies on a Friday, My Letter Doesn’t

Arrive ‘til Monday 27

Your Friendly Female Anthropologist’s Take on Bar Pick-Ups 28

Bucket List 30

Losing Weight 31

Editorial Reviews

"Skin Splitting is both fantastic and familiar, the way dreams often are, and although the book's imagined encounters with infamous serial killers are compelling enough, I am even more intrigued by the speaker of these poems, witty, despairing, tender, and exposed."

--Blas Falconer, author of The Foundling Wheel

"YOUR MOTHER would warn you about this book, the way she'd warn you against tabloid headlines concerning alien abductions and two-headed dogs; the way she'd advise you avoid the carnival freak show; the way she'd mention your boyfriend looks uncannily like that serial killer she once saw on America's Most Wanted. It's best not to dwell on the disturbing. But "[s]ome woman once said you should do the things that scare you," Bryanna Licciardi reminds us. So pick up this unforgettable debut collection. Delight in a poet who embraces her obsessions and fears with a dark wit sure to unhinge your mother, and with good cause: These poems have been watching you. They've been lurking--in American culture and body image, in the odd footnotes of history, sometimes behind the neighbor's car. They smell like tequila and eat like wolves. They are smart and self-aware and know exactly how to make you squirm."

--Kory Wells, author of Heaven Was the Moon

"The poems in Bryanna Licciardi's skin splitting are poems of confession, perspective, and obsession. Raw and brave, these poems reveal dark truths, dragging them into light and asking "Where's the heart / supposed to be?" The poet says, "I want . . . to grow like a river, / narrow, then wide, then endlessly," and this is exactly what she does, weaving mysteries and realities until the questions we ask our deepest souls come to the surface: What do we want? What do we need? Is it safe to be who we really are? These poems dig deep - past skin, past bone - into the blood of the human existence, still animalistic, still "exploited by flaws." As much as words can split our emotions, these poems declare "See, I am breakable," and by claiming that truth we find ourselves face to face with both the beauty and the brutality that exists in every human heart."

--Sandy Coomer, author of The Presence of Absence and Rivers Within Us

"In Skin Splitting Bryanna Licciardi writes, "He's leading me up the stairs/ and, though I look back, / I can't think of a reason to stop him." She leads the reader to notorious serial killers like John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer, but not to be slaughtered; instead, with exuberantly original lines and images, she invites one to face the horror in every day situations--a dinner, a party, a walk. She examines her own skin and reactions--asking readers to consider their own imperfections. Later, she compares humans to animals, "But then again/ if we were perfect/ there would be no need for love." If we were perfect there would be no need for poetry. Thankfully we're not and thankfully Licciardi is writing poems."

--Cat Dixon, managing editor of The Backwaters Press

From the Publisher