Fluent in Silence by Jayne Shore

“Jayne Shore’s poems traverse the jagged landscapes between childhood and adulthood. She searches for identity in a dreamlike world both beautiful and dangerous, populated by adults who wish to sculpt her to their will. “I was called a doll. I watched other dolls. / They did not speak,” she writes. “I became fluent / in silence, the most respected / noise.” Fluent in Silence is an unforgettable debut book from a brave, dazzling poet who teaches us new ways to find beauty in our broken places.”

–Rebecca Jamieson, author of The Body of All Things (Finishing Line Press, 2017)

“With deft restraint & powerful, elegant imagery, Jayne Shore’s debut chapbook asks readers to consider what it means to become fluent / in silence, the most respected // noise. From ice skating rink to nursing home, Shore considers identity & “truth” as a Korean American woman. These poems ask important questions without demanding answers. Each poem in this collection aches us into the complex legacies of memory, grief & matrilineage in diaspora even as we long for a place where we may feel at home, a place to be fully ourselves. After all, what butterflies stay / on battlefields?”

–Joan Kwon Glass, author of Daughter of Three Gone Kingdoms (Perugia Press, 2024)

“Haunting, incandescent, and full of teeth, this collection is a stunner.”

–Joy Sullivan, author of Instructions for Traveling West (Dial Press, 2024)