That Ex - Rachelle Toarmino
That Ex - Rachelle Toarmino
WHATEVER’S THE RASCAL VERSION OF SUCKING MEAT OFF THE BONE IS WHAT I DO TO THE ENDS OF ALL OF MY RELATIONSHIPS
108 Pages
5.8″ x 8.3″
ISBN: 978-1-941985-10-6
Release date: June 9th, 2020
Rachelle Toarmino’s debut collection of poems is “The Glass Essay” for the Tinder generation, a fiery and playful exploration of the all-too-real experiences that come with being an ex. While the title suggests a meditation on leaving and being left—on absence, even on woundedness—there are no ghosts in this book. Instead, the reader finds Britney Spears and other archetypal exes and troubled lovers, from Carmela Soprano and Lorde to Anne Carson and Molly Bloom. They don’t haunt the rooms of these poems: they party in them, fill them with their laughter, rage, and tender longing. Unbroken and big-hearted, they sing together of magic and pain, of old fights and new gambles, of getting over a breakup and getting over yourself.
PRAISE FOR THAT EX
Rachelle Toarmino's That Ex is the poetry book all your ex-boyfriends warned you was crazy. These poems are somewhere between aphorism, dm, and good old fashioned free verse. This is a sensitive, self-aware collection full of Britney Spears references, emotional vulnerability, and digital nostalgia. Funny, tender, and real.
–Hera Lindsay Bird, author of Hera Lindsay Bird
The poems in Rachelle Toarmino’s That Ex ask an insistent question: What does love look like in the era of the group chat? In these poems, ex-lovers swirl around with Lorde, Sopranos characters, Anne Carson, and James Joyce, creating a rascally tenderhearted poetics of loss, joy, and desire. This debut, no question, is iconic. I walk away from it with wonder and, yes, a Britney lyric: “I think there’s love / I don’t think it’s what / we thought it was / I still believe.”
–Jakob Maier, first poet on the cover of GQ
This collection is the smartest and the baddest. I felt a love I thought was only possible in bar bathrooms . . . dizzy, real, and there for you, baby girl. It's what I wanted! I didn't even know!
–Kimmy Walters, author of Killer, Uptalk, and The Faraway