Publisher's Synopsis
Now with special bonus content! Includes an Author Interview and samples of two BTV Press anthologies.
Introduction for Heretic by Kristy Webster Dear Reader, Can you ask yourself, Was Jesus a half-hidden woman? / Is erasure a given for any Divine, / vulnerable creature? This collection is for anyone who was born into a religion that promised paradise later for compliance now. That demanded silence and submission at the cost of autonomy and a sense of safety. For anyone forced into a role by family and lovers that didn't fit with their identity. The first slut to be shamed, / Now my legs are wired shut. / I'm wasted under your wing, / I'm almost a virgin again. Kristy Webster writes with a ferocity that forces the hidden faces of religion into the daylight. Holds their throats to a mirror, says open wide - say ahh. She demands: look here, witness this. See what you have done. take your fury to your mother / and ask her why you believe / a woman is a place to bury / your pain over and over. Webster writes to reclaim her power, to uncover the grave of herself and climb into the moonlight, transformed into something more than human. Should you want to leave, / you must first break / the soft, terrible neck / of your own fear. This collection is for anyone who ever felt stifled by this American culture of hypocrisy. Of shoot first, ask questions later. Of either you're with us or against us. Well, which one is it?
