In Emily Perkovich's baby, sweetheart, honey, her poem "Girls, Girls, Girls" describes girls as "revolution" and "riot," "predator" and "prey," "silence" and "outcry," and most of all, "protest." Through poems centering the female body, sex, sexual assault, sex work, motherhood and more, Perkovich protests the limitations placed on women-and on anyone other than cis white men-in our society. With a variety of poetic forms, striking imagery and language, Perkovich breaks through these limitations to express the many realities of women in a world that so often condemns and restricts the female gender. Most of all, Perkovich takes us on a journey toward self-ownership-toward women refusing to be defined by others, instead choosing to name ourselves.

-Stephanie Parent, author of Every Poem a Potion, Every Song a Spell