A feirce collection of poetry and prose centered at the crossroads of black and queer culture. Walrond's use of space, imagery, and form is refreshing and invigorating. The prose flows and the poetry keeps the reader enthralled. It's a long collection and at times I found myself feeling tired but overall this collection is engaging and showcases Walrond's talents.

My favorite poems are: "The Untitled, the Unnamed, & the Unnameable", "I Do Not Speak Latin", and "The Sacrifice."

Just finished Brad Walrond's "Every Where Alien" - got an early look thanks to NetGalley and Amistad (which was pretty cool).

This collection packs a punch and is steeped in history. You can really feel the influence of ballroom culture throughout. The poems have a way of sticking with you, like the lingering feeling after a night out. It's more about the overall impact than any single piece.

I have to admit, some of the poems started to blur together for me. It's like I remember the mood more than specific lines, if that makes sense.

Thanks to NetGalley & Amistad for the ARC!

Brad Walrond’s "Every Where Alien" is feverish and oppressive in its history, but how else could one present a history so full of oppression?

The book feels deeply influenced by ballroom music and culture—these poems stick to readers like sweat-soaked clothes, gradually chafing into full-blown sores by the end of the collection. Like a night of dance, their cumulative effect is far greater than their individual memorability. Even so, they feel intensely and purposefully situated, both in history and geography, as seen in the fantastic “They Crowned Him: An Elegy to Kalief Browder.” This is where Walrond’s political engagement and ear for musicality seem to converge into more than the sum of their parts, and I wish the rest of the book shared this focus.

Personally, I feel that the poems are a little too frictionless and fragmentary, with lines feeling almost interchangeable across the entirety of the book. They wash over the reader as the memory of a mood, never quite forming their own shape. A notable exception to this is the titular poem, which Walrond has also recorded to great effect on "Alien Day." There are certain kinds of poems that can only live well as performance, and that feels true of this book as a whole. I would love to hear it spoken, with space for the audience to respond to resonant lines.

In this particular form, though, I imagine that "Every Where Alien" will be exciting for people who already like Brad Walrond’s work but unmemorable for most other readers.

I really enjoyed Every Where Alien. It touched on a lot of relevant topics, such as being, black, queer, and just plain different in America. There were a lot of lines that really hit me and some very clever lines. My favorite poem was probably the last one in the collection: Inside Thie Gif. Every line in the poem just hit and ended the collection on a high note!