Resting Bitch Face

An Audacious Book Club Pick Ms., A Best Poetry of the Year Our Culture Magazine, A Most Anticipated Book of the Summer “A beautifully rendered collection of some of the profound observations, questions, and heartbreaks that attend existence in a Black feminine body. These poems will spark recognition in women of every origin, artists, and lovers of art. Whether chronicling childhood, the day-to-day of human relationships, the viewing and making of art, or the ways in which certain revered artists terrorized their subjects, every poem considers (mis)perception and clarity from a unique perch.” —Gianni Washington, Chicago Review of Books ""What we see in something as superficial (and alluring) as a face is a throughline Byas tugs and torques through her new collection, in sections named after painting terms ('Canvas,' 'Gesso,' 'Dry Down'), in responses to canonical artworks ('Well Damn, Picasso') and meditations sparked by museum- and moviegoing. Byas’s pantoums, duplexes, and sonnet sequences flaunt a rigorous formalism, but she may be even better at decomposing than at composing: blacking out and recontextualizing her own polished words, refuting her poems with contrasting poems packed into footnotes, Byas scrutinizes the multiple facets of every face."" —Christopher Spaide, Literary Hub ""This astute and ingenious collection shines."" —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Striking . . . Ranging from bildungsroman-esque, self-image-themed poems to elegant verses in conversation with art, film, poetry, photography, and historical figures, these works consider the perspective of muse and artist, observer and observed . . . Byas deploys strong, startling wordplay and clever imagery . . . A thought-provoking, gracefully executed collection.” —Booklist (starred review)