I think the concept of this was quite lovely, but it was in the execution that it fell slightly. The poems were a hit or miss for me, but the ones I really enjoyed were: Red Woman, Half Girl Then Elegy, To the Cherry Blossoms on 16th and Wharton, Incantation, and Speak House. One or two poems for me felt as if they were just flowery words strung together, idk, it might just be a me thing that I didn't understand them well. Although some of the poems weren't my cup of tea, the art on the other hand is another story. I loved every single illustration, they were beautiful and colorful and I felt like they did a good job in being a visual accompaniment to the poems. However, sometimes I felt that the way lines were divided for each illustration felt a little chopped up, and it didn't really have the desired effect I think it was trying to give.

An earnest and energetic compendium of the feminist experience illustrated through comics and poetry.

Beautifully illustrated, and I love the concept - I really didn't get anything from the poetry itself (but I'm not a fan of poetry at all), but I'm sure people who do love poetry anthologies will see this as an original graphic novel that's well worth giving a go.

Embodied was such a lovely surprise! I'm fairly new to reading poetry and this is the first time I've read a collection with illustrations like this. I really enjoyed the interpretation of poetry through art, as well as all the important subjects highlighted in the works. My favorites included "To the Cherry Blossoms on 16th and Wharton," "Tapestry," and "Incantation." It was great getting to check out so many different writers and artists in this anthology. I'll be keeping an eye out for their names in the future!

Embodied is a beautiful feminist poetry collection combining powerful poems with striking visual imagery. Poetry can be a difficult genre to sink your teeth into, and the idea of illustrating poems to breathe new life into them is an interesting one. Unfortunately, I felt that the concept of this anthology did not line up with the execution. Concept-wise, the anthology was perfection. Execution-wise, it was a bit of a mixed bag. There was a serious lack of cohesion between the pieces, which is the key to really making an anthology work. I also wish that the poems hadn’t been printed immediately after the comics because I felt it slowed down the anthology’s momentum. However, these gripes don’t change the fact that this graphic poetry collection was stunning. “Rubble Girls” in particular took my breath away.

EMBODIED: AN INTERSECTIONAL FEMINIST POETRY ANTHOLOGY quite brilliantly joins poetry from cis female, trans, and non-binary poets with sequential art to create a truly unique graphic novel. I found the poems moving, thoughtful, and, at times, emotionally challenging. The dichotomy of lush, beautiful language with brutal subjects (eg. sexual assault, war, miscarriage) was particularly devastating in the way that poetry often is. Most of the poems felt like a quiet attempt to move through trauma, processing the losses while recovering hope for the future.

I'm grateful to have read a collection like this with marginalized voices and experiences prioritized, and hope to see a second volume in the future.

This is a really tough one for me to review. On their own, the poetry and graphic illustration are beautiful. I think as separate pieces, they expressed everything this collection said it was going to with its summary. But there is a disconnect in these pieces that I think takes away from some of them--and I think that comes from other individual's creating art based on incredibly personal pieces without communication (or at least that's what it felt like from a reader's perspective). Poetry and illustration are both *so* subjective and if they aren't meshed together in harmony...you might get something a little off-kilter. Which is what I felt with this. I'm still giving it 3 stars because, like I said, the poetry and art as their own pieces were successful. I was just left wanting a little more.

4.5 stars

This was such a creative work; I have never seen poetry and visual art combined in this way. There is such a huge amount of diversity not just in the author's identities, but the art styles, poetry forms, and subjects of each piece. I truly think there is a piece for everyone in here; my personal favorites were "Capitalism Ruins Everything, Including Witchcraft" and "Tapestry." A lot of the poems used very lyrical, free verse style poetry, which at times were hard to interpret (I imagine it would be especially hard for someone new to the genre), but they reiterate the poem without the drawing at the end of each section, and I think the study guides in the back are very helpful. Overall, I think this is a stunning piece of literature that I think is perfect for fans of poetry, visual arts, feminism, and the human experience.

I'm very precise about the poetry I like and I don't like a lot. I liked some peoms in here but was impermeable to most. However most of the illustrations where very clever and beautiful !

The idea of this anthology is such a good one that I'm really not sure why it hasn't been done before, although looking at some of the pitfalls of the execution, I can see why the challenge might have seemed daunting. Poetry and comic art are two very different mediums, and marrying the two up isn't the most obvious choice. Where it works, it really works, but where it doesn't - well, there are some poems here which work wonderfully as narrative graphic illustrations, but others - mostly the poems which are almost entirely based around imagery - which quite simply don't.

I loved the wealth of voices included in this book (although, in 2021, it's time we stopped proudly proclaiming our anthologies for their 'diversity' if there's no disabled voices in them - this was a real tangible lack in this anthology, especially given that it touted itself multiple times as being diverse) and the sheer variety of poetry and art styles. Obviously, by its nature, there were some artists and poets whose work I liked more than others, but that's par for the course with any anthology. I particularly loved the final poem, Birth, by Wendy Chin-Tanner, and also thought its artwork was probably the most complementary and least distracting of the book. I also really appreciated the study guide at the back and found that it gave me lots of things to think about, and it was really enlightening to re-read some of the poems with those questions in mind.

Unfortunately, for me, having the structure of the poems broken up to fit them into the panels of the artwork really ruined any chance of engaging with most of the poems themselves; I feel like the poems often suffered from being surrounded by the chaos of the art, rather than embellished or enhanced by it. I don't really think that the two mediums really work together with the style of poetry chosen here, alas. It might work with poetry in a more narrative style, but not these ones.

Still, it's a really excellent idea for an anthology, and I think it could be a great series of books. I'd definitely read more of them, but would hope that the choice of poems would be better suited to the project.

"It's embarrassing to understand so little about the world while taking up all this space."

This collection of poems was gorgeously made and compiled and dealt with so many important, sometimes beautiful, and sometimes terrifying themes, characters and stories. My problem: I don't think I understood the depth and meaning of some of the poems as English isn't my first language. Which is, of course, on me and not the authors or illustrators. I'm sure anyone with a love for poetry and a native speaker, will enjoy this to the full extent.

actual rating: 2.5

Take this review with a grain of salt because I am definitely not a poetry person but I thought that this anthology had an interesting concept and wanted to try to expand my reading habits. I'm sure a lot of people will find a lot to like here but there was really nothing that I related to on a personal level at all, and I also ended up having to skip probably 5 or 6 poems because they were about pregnancy but that's more of a me problem.

The art was okay but I felt it was a little bit too literal most of the time and didn't really add any new level of understanding to the poems, which is what I was hoping for since I often have a lot of trouble deciphering what poems are actually trying to say. Again, I'm sure a lot of people will love this and I love the idea of it but I just couldn't get into it at all.

Whoa whoa wow. I've never seen this before and it was amazing. Poetry mixed with beautiful artwork portraying that poetry. Fabulous!!!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing a free eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

3.5/5

I had such a hard time trying to even get this file open that I will never ask for a book or a Read now on netgalley if it's a protected PDF. I am not doing this ridiculous dance again.

This was a decent anthology, but idk I don't think I'm a poetry person. Which is totally fine, we all have our preferences. I really loved the artwork that accompanied each poem, though it was hard to read at times on my laptop. I blame the PDF file.

My favorite poem was Half Girl, Then Elegy. The artwork was incredible for this one. It involved galaxy colors and this like dream world. I absolutely loved this one. Honestly would read it again just for a chance to pour of this poem again.

Special mention goes to the poem "Capitalism Ruins Everything even Witch Craft" which was slightly disappointing in the message, but I loved the title.

A wonderful collection of poetry, set to beautiful illustrations that give the already poignant words new and deeper meanings through varied and unique drawings.

Thanks to NetGalley, Diamond Book Distributors and A Wave Blue World for an ARC of this anthology in exchange for a review. Opinions are my own.

This was a little bit of a mixed bag for me. 'Embodied' brands itself as a unique collection of intersectional feminist poetry-in-comics, which it is. The idea of combining poetry with graphic novels definitely intrigued me and I'm always here for content celebrating women. I do not regret reading it, but it didn't connect to me as I had thought it would, for various reasons.

But first, let's talk about what I loved about the book.

1. The art is exquisite and beautiful for every single piece. Even if the poem wasn't my cup of tea, I was still wowed by the art that went with it. The storytelling, the use of colour. Sometimes the comic added a layer to the poem that made complete sense but that I never would have realised just from reading the words. Sometimes the art clarified something, and sometimes it was just a wonderful illustration of the words.

2. Women! All women, all the time! I love it!

3. The poems that I connected with, I *connected* with. Poetry has a different impact than prose, it has this way of creating a narrative, an image, with few words that can slice so deeply. There are a few phrases that I will definitely remember, that I love. There are also a few poems that I love and whose author I will definitely look in to. To have that combined with such beautiful art, was amazing.

Sadly, there were also a few things that made it harder to read this anthology.

1. First and foremost, I found it hard to really connect with the poetry when it was fragmented and surrounded by the chaos of visual art. I would have preferred to have the poem first, and then the graphic art. That's also how I read it, I skipped ahead to the poem, and then went back to the start of the comics bit. I understand why the comic comes first, as that is part if the point of the book. But for me it was too hard to focus on the poems themselves, which meant it was also hard to connect the poem to the illustrations.

2. Some (about 2/3?) of the pieces I didn't connect with. No insult to the author meant, of course, just personal preference about poetry. Naturally, if the poem isn't your thing, the graphic novel of the poem has an even harder time to capture your interest. I will say, however, that there were a few times when I wasn't very keen on the poem but looking at the graphic novel made it make more sense. So there is that.

All in all, I loved the art on its own, but the combination with poetry wasn't an overwhelming success for me. Maybe it was the way it was presented, maybe it was the specific content, I'm unsure. Nevertheless, some of the poems hit me with their gut-punchingly beautiful stories and those more than make up for the others.

Never have I encountered poetry combined with visual representation. The images helped in heightening the reading experience and provided quite the unique consumption of and interaction with these two art forms that can sometimes be viewed as appealing to a certain kind of reader and never the two together.

Pairing visuals and words that evoke strong emotions should become a regular feature of poetry. The poems themselves were raw and lyrical, and features a mashup of poets and artists showing what power can be found in words and drawings.

The poems cover identity, existing in our bodies, the use and perception of our bodies, dreams, hopes, experiences, views, and frustrations. They engage and allow reflection on shared lived experiences and the art lines and colours used also form another tether to the words on the page.

The artists’ stylistic representations were varied, beautiful, bright colours with sharp lines and detailed features; whimsical and pastel tones; deep rich tones; dark charcoal lines, all working together to form a collective interpretation of these stories. The inclusion of gender identities across the spectrum coming together to create this anthology was transformative and hopefully will garner the attention to foster more works like this in the literature canon.

Favourite Poems:
Rubble Girl
Half Girl, Then Elegy
Capitalism Ruins Everything, Even Witchcraft
Drown
Settlement
Dancing with Kiko on the Moon

Unfortunately, I couldn't get this PDF to work.

Nothing to do with the book itself. Just the file.

Netgalley can you help?

Thanks

This book is where poetry and comics combine. There are 21 stories that explore the relationship between gender identity and the body. The stories come from all kinds of women and some of their stories are sweet and sometimes they are sad, but each poem includes art and the color palate matches so week that the stories blend into each other seamlessly. At the end of each comic the full text of the poem is included which was a nice touch.

I loved this book! The graphic novel format adds such an interesting lens through which to read the poems. Of course, there were some I liked more than others, but that’s the beauty of anthologies: with so many creators’ work represented (both authors and artists!) every reader is sure to find something they like. The format of the anthology was also very well done. After each graphic poem, the poem is repeated in its regular print and spacing and at the end of the anthology there are discussion questions for all of the poems to encourage readers to think deeply about them. I’ve never seen a book of poetry displayed this way and I definitely want more. What a wonderful collection!