Beautiful Malady
Poems
by Ennis Rook Bashe
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Pub Date 05 Jun 2023 | Archive Date 15 Oct 2023
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Description
A siren song of queerness, disability, and myth, these poems reinvent love, life, and death. BEAUTIFUL MALADY is an exploration of pain, weaving speculative poems about fairy tales, folklore, fantasy, and the supernatural with the reality of chronic illness and disability. Ennis Rook Bashe deftly creates a world where the broken body is beautiful.
About the Author
Ennis Bashe is a queer romance novelist and poet whose work has appeared in Strange Horizons, Cricket, and Liminality Magazine. Their debut chapbook, Glitter Blood, was an Elgin Award nominee. If you enjoyed the disability-related themes in this chapbook, you may also enjoy their fantasy romance series Hunters of the Cairn, set in a world where only disabled and chronically ill people can become monster hunters. Find more Ennis at https://linktr.ee/ennisrookbashe.
Advance Praise
“From the melancholy to the manic, Bashe deftly uses fantasy, folklore, and pop culture to leave no corner of living with disability unexplored; weaving humor, rage, ache, and triumph into a mosaic that is utterly unique to them, yet deeply relatable.” —R. Thursday, poet
“In Beautiful Malady, Ennis Rook Bashe explores the painful reality of living with chronic illness and disability with gorgeous, lyrical precision. The imagery hits home with its devastating simplicity and unexpected juxtaposition, leaving the reader with bitter-sweet empathy for both the narrator and themselves.” —Rebecca A. Demarest, Author of Less Than Charming
“With Beautiful Malady, Ennis Rook Bashe brings us into a brief but compelling visit into a world of ghosts and machines, cybernetics, mobility and accessibility and the queer edges of the undiscovered country. These verses draw you into questions with few certain answers, histories and vantage points that need to be heard and read repeatedly. ‘If I transcribed a pantheon I'd say: the god of magic is the god of death,’ we're informed, and each poem moves with an assured voice and a striking imagination. This chapbook will linger with me for quite some time." —Bryan Thao Worra, former Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association President (2016-2022)
“Ennis Rook Bashe fuses classic fairy-tale archetypes and imagery with new and reimagined elements rooted in the queer, disabled bodily and social experience. They balance dreams and nightmares, love and loss, old and new, life and death, in a way that feels both unique and embedded in a much longer, deeper continuity. Throughout it all, the disabled body serves as an anchor—a touchstone, a talisman—in all its beautiful, painful complexity.” –Toby MacNutt
“The poems in Bashe’s collection are surprising in a visceral way, delicate and sharp like a finely crafted blade flaying apathy from our observations to leave a raw, vulnerable relief in the silken textures of syllables that invite us beyond the ordinary rush of senses. “Beautiful Malady” is brutal, beatific, and irresistibly beckoning; give in to the sweet melody of its pages and listen for the fairytale of your own heart’s uncertain delight.” —Saba Syed Razvi, author of In the Crocodile Gardens
Marketing Plan
Goodreads Giveaway 5/18 - 6/5
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/367523-beautiful-malady-poems
Goodreads Giveaway 5/18 - 6/5
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/367523-beautiful-malady-poems
Available Editions
| EDITION | Ebook |
| ISBN | 9781953736222 |
| PRICE | $9.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 70 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Ainsley J, Reviewer
I haven’t read much modern poetry, but after reading this book I definitely want to change that. This collection includes beautiful poems on life, disability, love, and much more. It was a delight to read and I look forward to whatever this author writes next.
Emma P, Reviewer
As someone who also suffers from numerous chronic illnesses and has had numerous doctors and other people not believe me about my conditions (e.g why I cant walk well, etc) I really resonated with this Authors work. I could really see the characters she portrayed and what goes through peoples minds who have chronic illness. It did take me a while to get into the writing style but I really enjoyed the work by the end of the book. Very well written.
Kat M, Reviewer
Wow, I loved this poetry collection. It's short but it packs a punch, and the author's note at the end was stunning. Bashe's language is beautiful, and as someone who already spends a lot of time thinking about how we can use fantasy worlds to unpack real-world issues, this one got me good. Several times, I would finish a poem only to immediately read it again to see what I might have missed the first time around.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review, and I've already tracked down the author's other works so that I can enjoy them, too.
Kathryn M, Reviewer
this was a great concept for a scifi poem collection, each poem was beautifully done and I enjoyed how good each of them was. I enjoyed the way Ennis Rook Bashe wrote this and thought it worked together well.
Nat D, Reviewer
I love the way this book of poetry discusses disability, fairytales, and the supernatural. The author's note at the end of the book also explains how it is sometimes easier to talk about certain issues when you put on a persona, and I thought that was an interesting perspective. Overall, the poems in this book were really well written. They explain difficult topics in a way that is easier to understand.
Shayna A, Reviewer
Ennis Rook Bashe's Beautiful Malady masterfully weaves queerness, disability, and myth into a poignant collection of poems. The author's authentic voice and vivid imagery create a world where brokenness is beautiful. Standout poems like "my mother calls me into the living room every time there's a disabled performer on reality television" and "disease vector" showcase Bashe's ability to capture pain and triumph. This unforgettable chapbook invites readers to explore the complexities of the human spirit and celebrates the resilience found within.
Anna T, Reviewer
I’ve never read poetry quite this like before. I love the supernatural and fairy tale themes throughout the book! It’s quite a short book of poems but I thoroughly enjoyed them! What I loved the most was that having a disability was shown to be beautiful in this book which is rare to find.
MaKenna C, Bookseller
Will post my review to Goodreads and Instagram profiles on publish day June 5, 2023.
Beautiful Malady
By: Ennis Rook Bashe
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Description:
A siren song of queerness, disability, and myth, these poems reinvent love, life, and death. BEAUTIFUL MALADY is an exploration of pain, weaving speculative poems about fairy tales, folklore, fantasy, and the supernatural with the reality of chronic illness and disability. Ennis Rook Bashe deftly creates a world where the broken body is beautiful.
Review:
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Beautiful. To the point. I loved this collection of poems. The author does a great job weaving disability and sci-fi/fantasy themes together. The poems were understandable and relatable. The author did an amazing job with this and I am excited and curious to check out their other works. I’ll leave you with a couple quotes I highlighted during my read: “Have you got a name for the way you don’t feel anything” and “I want to be dying for, not dying of.” Check this out for sure!
Laurel S, Reviewer
Dark fantasy poetry with the narrative frame of disability wasn't even something I was aware I would be able to find. I am absolutely glad I did though. Bashe utilizes monsters, wizards, and dungeons and dragons to drag out the dark part of living disabled into the light. These poems cover medical trauma, hospital stays, and quite a bit more.
It took me a few poems to adjust to how language is structured within the poems, but the content and framing here drew me in. I will be re-reading some of these poems, and I highly recommend Beautiful Malady to anyone who enjoys reading on disability and poetry. Extra bonus points if fantasy is also your jam!
Huge thanks to NetGalley and Interstellar Flight Press for letting me get my hands on a copy.
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