E Kerr at Harvard Book Store

Harvard Book Store welcomes award-winning poet E KERR for a discussion of their new collection trans [re]incarnation. They will be joined in conversation by DEMISTY D. BELLINGER—author of New to Liberty.

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Masks are not required for this event. As of June 1, 2023, masks are encouraged but not required for most Harvard Book Store events, unless otherwise specified. Please review individual listings.

About trans [re]incarnation

Evoking the pain and exploration of identity expressed by transgender poets such as Torrin A. Greathouse, the poems of trans [re]incarnation aim to [re]write the narrative of the body its speaker finds themselves trapped in. The poems emerge from the "embodied" trauma and lived experiences of transgender poet, E Kerr. The poems use experimental and reimagined traditional received forms. They reflect an experience of betrayal by one's own god, body, and family, while searching for the promise of what still can be.

Praise for [re]incarnation

"In trans [re]incarnation, a scar is an ars poetica, death a rebirth. Kerr writes into healing with a compassionate immediacy. This book is an anthem for autonomy in the way it subtly transforms form to express endless potentials. All that is being lamented here is what is unchanging." —Kylie Gellatly, author of The Fever Poems

"It's hard to say what's most mesmerizing about trans [re]incarnation: the musicality of Kerr's poems, the lyricism of their line breaks, or adoption of received forms. It's not only the way that Kerr reimagines form that deserves celebration, but also the way they repurpose and reimagine trauma, memory, and, perhaps most compellingly, the found text of a letter both authorizing and pathologizing their own gender-affirming surgery. This is a transcendent debut." —Billie R. Tadros, author of Graft Fixation

"E Kerr's debut collection, trans [re]incarnation, crawl's with "vines that wrap" its reader's throats. Though often claustrophobic in tone, and violent in its figurative language, trans [re]incarnation's undercurrent is, ultimately, a stream of tenderness. This new tenderness is in lineage with a growing chorus of trans voices, voices that demand space, safety, and softness. It is a privilege to write alongside Kerr in our shared cultural moment. It is a joy to read their work. It is a gift that we are no longer alone." —Kayleb Rae Candrilli, author of Water I Won't Touch