Embodied: An Intersectional Feminist Comics Poetry Anthology

From the moment I saw the cover of Embodied, I was intrigued. It’s beautifully designed and inviting, and its intriguing mashup of comics and poetry did not disappoint. This anthology, with poems—exclusively from cis female, trans, and nonbinary poets—was a very thought-provoking read. In the foreword, editor Wendy Chin-Tanner mentions that they “believe in the power of stories to create empathy because empathy is the engine of change.” With this collection of poems, they have done so. 

These powerful poems run the gamut of experiences from the intersectional feminist lens. The very first poem creates a sense of longing that I had not realized I felt, and from there I went on a journey of emotions. I was taken from that sense of longing in Miller Oberman’s “Voyages” to anger in Laura Hinton’s “University Toxic” then to a sense of Joy in the excerpt of JP Howard’s “A Love Letter to The Decades I Have Kissed or Notes on Turning 50.” All of that was rounded out by the sense of poignancy I felt from Wendy Chin-Tanner’s “Birth” that contained some of the more powerful artwork I’ve seen recently. 

Poetry, on its own, is a powerful medium that can be used to help in that aforementioned mission to create empathy. However, combining the poems with artwork serves not only to help explain the story of the words on the page, but to augment the emotions that the words evoke. Indeed, the artwork is just as powerful and quite possibly could tell a story all its own. And that’s what makes Embodied such a unique, gratifying, and powerful experience. It grabs you, holds you, and it will stick with you long after you have closed its pages