Pig; Poems by Sam Sax was not for me, personally. I am still thankful that I got to read this! Maybe I will enjoy the next read from this author more :)

i had a gorgeous time.

sam sax is a true talent, and i can't wait for their next book!!

tysm to netgalley for this rockin arc

Here's how you mine a metaphor. I remember hearing Sam Sax read Miss Piggy, and now, it's delightful to hear and listen to them dig all the way in. Allllll the meanings of "pig" (to want/desire/carnivorous/queerness/ corporeality/largeness/largesse - this is such a queer and gorgeous book of poetry). Highly recommend the audiobook, it's like hearing the poet right in your living room. "The homosexual mystique"!

I really enjoyed this collection of poems. While I don't believe the author reinvents the wheel in any way, the passages are still appealing to read and Sax's perspective really shines through. Tragically relatable.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for my honest review.

I left my review on Amazon.

I think for someone who is more interested in the content of Sam's poetry, this would be a home run. I am admittedly not his audience. I asked for a review copy from NetGalley because I like pigs. My bad!

This poetry collection is both well-researched and deeply felt. Its titular animal is real, fictional, metaphorical, cultural. To any question about pigs, Sax answers “all of the above.” The epigraph is from Orwell’s Animal Farm; the three sections, “Straw,” “Sticks,” and “Bricks,” follow the materials of the Three Little Pigs. Of course there’s Wilbur from Charlotte’s Web, Babe the Pig, the nightmare fuel pig in Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Miss Piggy as a drag queen. I’d bet that most of the fictional pigs you can name make an appearance in one or more of Sax’s poems.

Questions of consumption, projection, and contagion run throughout the collection. Sax plays with disintegrating boundaries between human and human, animal and animal, human and animal. The poems sometimes made me squeamish (I have never intentionally eaten, and will never intentionally eat, a pig), but they were meant to. For Sax, pigs index the discomforts and injustices of contemporary life. The poems are very queer and very Jewish, as well as very anti-Zionist. Sax does interesting things with form—abecedarians, concrete poems, forms of their own invention. The poems are very meta, referring to a vast sphere of culture as well as other poems in the collection.

I really enjoyed reading Sam Sax's new poetry collection, Pig. The entire collection revolves around pigs — their role in society and their many symbolic meanings. I was introduced to Sax’s poetry through Poetry magazine, so when I saw that they had a collection coming out, I knew I had to read it. Many of the poems challenged me as a reader with both their form and subject matter, and I felt like I came away from the reading experience with a deeper understanding of the world and the way we treat each other. Sax gracefully weaves together so many different ideas and issues and spheres of life, it was a joy to witness. My favorite poems in the collection, for the record, are “Interpellation” and “it’s a little anxious to be a very small animal entirely surrounded by water.”

Pig by Sam Sax is out now! I would recommend it to anyone interested in modern/current queer poetry. Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for sending this book for review consideration!

WEDNESDAYS WITH DENISE: September 20, 2023

Sam Sax begins their hilarious, touching, and human/humane book Pig with an Orwell quote from Animal Farm—"“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” It is impossible for me to say which Sax poems I enjoyed more—“Miss Piggy,” “a pig pulls out of paradise,” or “james dean with pig.” Inventive and political, tender and sensual, Sax’s poems use the concept of “pig” to talk about police violence, capitalism/”this little piggy went to market,” pet pigs, religious dietary restrictions, the swine flu, the pandemic’s outbreak in pork plants, ecology, pig hearts used in surgery, and the celebration and degradation of the human body. When Sax learns that their grandfather castrated pigs as a young person, they imagine “castrato pigs singing/opera oddly/wagner probably…” and later, in a companion poem “Author’s Note,” they write “I’ve never bred pigs. never fed pigs…only read pigs. only/ begged to be pig-bred. only been/ called pig/a hundred times…” In “Experiments,” they imagine revisiting a classroom of fetal pigs. In “Squeal Like A Pig,” they recontextualize Deliverance through a tender queerness: “boy hurting/boy hurt/never imagined/I could leave/become the trees….” Sax has seemingly and magnificently exhausted the subject, though they write in their opening poem “the first book written/about pigs was published/ in 3468 BC, the last will be this, until it isn’t….”

Congratulations, Sam!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this book of poems and the way Sam sax writes. The poetry was very creative and each of the poems referred to pigs in some way. I will definitely be reading more from this author.

Thank you netgalley for allowing me to read this ARC. #NetGalley

This collection was so cool & I'm immediately adding more Sam Sax to my tbr! Sax uses pigs - in historical, media, literary, and other contexts - to write so creatively & beautifully was really impressive. I'll definitely be revisiting this one. (Sealey Challenge day 17)

Pig by Sam Sax is a debut poetry collection drenched in pig references that allow the reader to soak up every aspect of its being. From pigpen to plate the process of the pig’s consumption links Sax’s main narratives: the examination of the carnal and spiritual. Sax offers cultural commentary, explores religion and identity, grapples with desire vs. restraint, plays with form, and displays masterful use of enjambment and volta. Numerous poems evoked a visceral reaction and prompted me to instantly re-read.

Some of my favorite pieces in this collection include Lisp, Interpellation, Author’s Note, Capital, Epithalamium, H1N1, Experiments, Lex Talionis, Porchetta Di Testa, and It’s a Little Anxious to be a Very Small Animal Entirely Surrounded. Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for the ARC!

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC!

I devoured this poetry collection in one night and it was well worth staying up late to read it. I loved the use of the pig as a theme and a narrative device that threaded all the poems in this collection to discuss cultural, biological, and religious topics. It was genuine and brilliantly written, and I can't wait to recommend this other folks.

Sam Sax is phenomenal. This collection was a showstopper. Poem after poem I found myself stunned and it just kept getting better. Physically had to put my phone down and walk away for a couple minutes multiple times. A prime example of great poetry.

3.5 stars rounded up. I’m not a big poetry person, but I’m trying to read more poetry this month. I couldn’t resist a book of poems all about my favorite animal, and I was surprised by the number of cultural, spiritual, social, etc. connotations of the word “pig.” While I failed to understand many of these poems due to my own lack of interest in figurative language, the ones that stuck out to me were VERY good. Sam Sax did a great job at discussing themes related to their personal religion and relationships as well as pandemics and cultural phenomenon that is relatable to everyone. Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

Day 5 of @SealeyChallenge 2023. Pig by Sam Sax published by Scribner.
@NetGalley @samsax1 @ScribnerBooks #TheSealeyChallenge

I am such a huge fan of Sam Sax, and had the fortune to co-sponor their reading in PHX with the U of A Poetry Center in 2019. They were wonderfully talented and personable and nearly brought the house down! This book delivers the Queer Jewish Urban antidote to David Lee’s The Porcine Canticles. I heard Lee read in the 90’s too-and fascinatingly Sax & Lee have a lot of common as public speakers. There were so many moments of precise language with trifurcated meaning—poems that examine pigs, sex, & death or pigs, home, & family or pigs, body, & history.

I liked the writing style of this one and how each poem related to pigs in some way. I believe I would find this more enjoyable if I was the targeted audience for this. I enjoyed reading it nonetheless!

Thank you NetGalley & Scribner for the digital ARC. A special thanks to Sam Sax! All opinions are my own.

I didn't expect to deeply contemplate the many facets of the word, animal, and connotation of 'pig', but I suppose that only speaks in favor of Sax's poetry collection as that was indeed what I ended up doing. There's a near viscous quality to their writing that mires you as the reader into the poetry. Was reading this pleasant? Hmmmm...no. Was it fascinating and engrossing? Absolutely.

If you're one for visceral description and uncomfortable contemplation over a wide breath of tangential topics this will be in your wheelhouse. I know there are specific sections of poems that I rather want embeded in my brain although my personal enjoyment of the individual poems varied wildly throughout the collection.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance digital copy to review.

i adore everything that sam sax writes, but with pig, they truly outdo themselves, breathing life into viscera in this themed collection. the porcine undertones that weave through poems ranging from kosher to kink, and a whole lot in between, sax creates pieces that do not shy from grotesquerie in what it means to be human, to be made of meat. they are unapologetic in the subjects they represent, and their poetic voice is raw, realized, and varied from piece to piece. a truly remarkable collection that all fans of experimental queer poetry should go into blind.

Pig is a collection of poems, some of which were previously published in prestigious literary journals, including Granta and Yale Review. Sax draws on the personal experience of being queer and Jewish to create a sprawling exploration of pain, attraction, and belonging.

The poems are joyous in their variety of forms and continuously keep readers on their toes. There is something for everyone in this collection. The straightforward language makes it a very accessible read.

In this gut-punch of a collection, Sam Sax takes us through difficult and taboo subjects all through the lens of a pig.

While each poem in this collection struck me as powerful, the ones that really popped were the sexy ones, likely because those felt the most transgressive to me. Poetry is at its most impressive in a transgressive state, and the way Sax weaves beauty into kink, all wrapped in a pig mask, is as startling as it is striking. I particularly enjoyed how Sax was able to create such vivid images without confusing or alienating the reader in any way. Every moment of his poems felt easily understood to me, which isn't true for every collection I've encountered.

My favorite poem by far was the one dealing with Miss Piggy. I've always loved her as a character, but Sam Sax revealed aspects of her being to me that I hadn't yet discovered, and I'm grateful to him for that.

My only complaint is that because I read this electronically, I was not able to eat a page as instructed.