“Required reading for everyone living in a body.”- M Téllez
Testimonials
Amber Dawn
“Dominant culture dresses survivors in a thin costume of pitiful heroism, often reducing intersectional identities and diversity of healing strategies. But Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha knows the multifarious textures of survivor skins… Her desire penetrates far deeper than reductive “happy endings.” And her memoir will surely become a lasting body of wisdom for anyone who yearns to holistically embrace our own survivor stories.”- Amber Dawn, author, Sodom Hill Road and Where the Words End And My Body Begins
From Manjeet Birk, Herizons
“(Dirty River) serves as a queer, disabled, punk of color manifesto that forces readers to open doors and go to places that have long been shut tight… If you are looking for an incredible book that is unlike anything else you have ever read, pick up Dirty River. You can thank me later.”
— Manjeet Birk, Herizons
From Cyree Jarelle Johnson, Deaf Poets Society
“(Leah’s work) paints a portrait of crippled body sovereignty in a world that would rather isolate us until we disappear.”
— Cyree Jarelle Johnson, Deaf Poets Society
From Bitch
“Piepzna-Samarasinha offers us a collective roadmap for living untamed, uncategorizable lives.”
From Qwo-Li Driskill
“Leah’s poems are rebel songs and love songs that bear witness and fight back – as miraculous, as mean, as stunning as every queer brown girl who survives.”
— Qwo-Li Driskill, author of Walking with Ghosts: Poems
From Allison McCarthy, Bitch Magazine
“With memorable references to Cherrie Moraga, bell hooks and Sonia Sanchez… Piepzna-Samarasinha’s writing should be shelved right beside them.”
— Allison McCarthy, Bitch Magazine.
From Wendy Elisheva Somerson, Tikkun
“Once I picked up Love Cake, I could not put it down until I finished every poem, even though I sometimes had to read through my tears… The gift of this poetry collection is nothing less than a roadmap to what liberation can look like for queer people who survive personal and collective trauma.”
— Wendy Elisheva Somerson, Tikkun