her. me. we, by Mary Sloane

Poetry, chapbook, 32 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

Sloane’s her. me. we is a chapbook about motherhood, memory, grief, and the uncanny act of becoming someone new while holding space for and reconciling with the people who made you. Moving through different relationships to the idea of motherhood, as a daughter, as a new mother, and as a collective part of a tribe, the collection explores inherited trauma, identity, and tenderness. Threaded throughout the poems is the lingering shadow of Sloane’s mother’s fight with mental illness and death, alongside questions of faith, ritual, and what remains after loss. Raised under a higher power, this collection explores the quiet faith that comes in when your prayers at 3am go from laid at the feet of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to yourself, your lineage, and your child’s future.

Structured in three distinct but connected sections — her, me, and we — the collection balances emotional intensity with moments of sharp humor, absurdity, and warmth. The poems move easily between grief and whimsy, between existential fear and the surreal comedy of modern motherhood: stroller walks, late-night anxieties, doctor visits, bodily transformation, and the overwhelming tenderness of raising a child while really having no clue what you’re doing. At its heart, her. me. we is about the women we inherit as we become the women we are. This book was written for the woman lost to the throes of her own mind, whether at 3 a.m. in tears or at 3 p.m. wandering store aisles, in those moments where we feel isolated and overwhelmed, confused and clear-eyed, whole and broken all at once. It is for the laughter and the release, and for the new faith we learn to place in ourselves.

Sloane is a writer, mother, and creative who has lived all over the United States. She writes short-form creative work that tries to distill the chaos of the mind into examinations of life’s quiet absurdities and its bright spots. Her work often explores motherhood, grief, womanhood, millennialhood, memory, and identity, balancing emotional intensity with humor and observation. her. me. we is her debut chapbook.