In Broken Latin

“Annette Spaulding-Convy’s 'In Broken Latin' is a lurid, sumptuous, shocking collection of poems, as intimate as any memoir. A riveting portrait of the passions of the body as well as the soul, In Broken Latin is ecstatic and wise, brutal and tender. What a breathtaking debut!” —Julianna Baggott, author of Compulsions of Silk Works and Bees and Lizzie Borden in Love “'In Broken Latin' disorders the ritualised life of a passionate and learned Roman Catholic nun, soon to leave her order for the joys and losses of a secular life, a woman’s life with childbirth, depression, and rituals at the heart. Annette Spaulding-Convy was a nun and she is a poet. After she leaves the convent, she imagines finding her habit in the closet: “Maybe on the back, I’ll sketch a rib / returning to man because it’s tired / of the story . . .” Wit, learning, candor, and formal discipline raise the poems, which soar like spirit for the reader’s pleasure.” —Hilda Raz, author of What Happens and Trans “Annette Spaulding-Convy’s In Broken Latin takes everything you ever assumed about life in the convent and turns it on its head. Smart, sensuous, engaging—these poems balance fierceness with gentleness, humor with darkness, and they are innovative while still being understandable. Spaulding-Convy offers an intelligence and magnetism in her poems that is rarely seen in a first collection.” —Kelli Russell Agodon, author of Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room