Salted City Psalms, by T!K! Williams

Poetry, chapbook, 32 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

Each of these poems was written in a place that no longer exists. From demolished music venues to the arms of vanished partners to the interiors of reforming vastus lateralis muscles, each of these poems serves as a snapshot of something that was deeply significant to T!K! Williams at a previous point in her life but, for better or for worse, had to be left behind.

This debut chapbook was born from upwards of a decade of internal dialogue about memory, sentiment and personal growth, but above all, it came from T!K!’s desire to keep her writing fun, even when its subjects weren’t. Included here are some of her favorite poetic forms, the sestina and the villanelle, which both utilize repetition of words and lines to both force deeper thematic explanation and open new ways to play with language.

T!K! Williams (she/they) is a poet and hopeless music enthusiast based in Indiana. She writes from the intersections of trans identity, disability, autism and faith, even if she doesn’t quite know where those things come from yet. Her work can be found in Mania Magazine, Poetries in English, Transients Magazine, and JAKE!, and she can be found trying to talk to the deer in the nearest forest.