Rooted in New York City and in the mythological world, Erin Lynn’s Forgive Our Kind draws us into the grieved yet determined mind of a woman, a survivor, “a sparrow caught in plastic,” for whom “the bulge in every pocket is a gun or a gun.” Muscling toward the future but constantly finding herself on a train or a drive to the past, the woman at the center of these intricate poems—whether the speaker or Lilith or Grendel’s mother—deliberates both the monsters who violate and the monsters violence makes of us before declaring, ultimately: “I may die of a moan’s hands / but I won’t be cowed.” —Eugenia Leigh, Author of Bianca

Winner of the 2021 Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize

6” x 9”, 32 pages, printed in Canada with FSC-certified paper with soy-based inks