★ 07/24/2023

In this vivid, sensuous, and gorgeous third collection, Sax (bury it) considers the extended and various metaphors of the pig in all its forms. By using the pig as both subject and object, Sax navigates queerness, filth, beauty, and capitalism, exploring at all times “the animal yearning/ within the animal within the animal.” Sax situates the pig long before an age of wealth, greed, and violence: “pig existed before we had tongues/ to name it.” In doing so, they remind the reader that “it’s a miracle life existed here at all.” These poems celebrate all things that seek to subvert dominant structures, drawing attention to the beauty of messy, complicated states and advising that “there are so many words for you children &/ none of them are dirty” and to “be disgusted into beauty.” With tenderness, a critical eye, and a longing borne from the feeling that “i’ve never been lonelier than i am/ right now,” Sax turns their rumination on the pig into a consideration of everything. Finding beauty in the lowest, filthiest things, these poems guide the audience’s gaze toward redemption. (Sept.)

Shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Poetry

"In wry poems that encompass everything from Dante to drag shows, this book emphasizes the affinities between humans and other animals.”—New York Times Book Review

"Vivid, sensuous, and gorgeous."—Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

"In this deeply lyrical and experimental tour de force, Sax smashes and inspects every interchangeable lens of the pig, literal and figurative, to unflinchingly examine sexuality, grief, xenotransplantation, and the nature of language itself. Biblical and humorous, provocative and tragic, these poems evoke an absolute and necessary understanding of the very boundaries of our humanity."
—Richard Blanco, author of How to Love a Country

"There are few things I love more in writing than the absolute pleasure(s) of multiple considerations -- a writer who holds an object in their hand and turns it over, tenderly, affording an audience a look at their obsession from several angles. Sam Sax takes this to heights that only he is capable of in Pig, dissecting shape, sound, multiple etymologies, histories. These are poems as rich in playfulness as they are in heartbreak. But they shine in their relentless curiosity. grief is an animal is beautiful all on its own, but it is the questioning that follows -- what kind of animal? let's cut to the chase, after all."— Hanif Abdurraqib, author of A Little Devil in America

"In Pig, Sam Sax charts a complicated and haunting portrayal of body, home, desire, nation, and beast. Sax is able to weave humor throughout their invention, creating new lyrical and visual terrain for language, for connection, for feeling, and for possibility. This book invites you in and then winds through the labyrinths of the mind, body, and history. Sax's words open and open, creating a space of examination of pig in so many forms. As soon as I started reading the book I could not stop; these are poems that I could build a home in."—Fatimah Asghar, author of If They Come for Us: Poems

“For Jews, pork is terefah, forbidden food—and, in this book, with a surprisingly light touch, Sam Sax makes of the pig a powerful, all purpose symbol...Language is the salve for, or the weapon against, a disordered world.”
—NPR

08/01/2023

While the subject of Sax's third full-length collection (after bury it) is succinctly encapsulated in its title, the poems within expand their reach across a limitless range of human thought, history, endeavor, and identity, all filtered through an explicitly queer, Jewish sensibility. From "portrait of a drag queen with a pig nose" (who embodies "the perfected form of all our darkest literatures smiling") through "xenotransplantation" ("my friend's a vegan with a pig heart/ thumping club music"), Sax finds a shared porcine presence, whether it emerges in a virus ("n1 h1") or in popular culture, as captured in a 1950s Life magazine photo ("james dean with pig"). Sax's most incisive lines spring from disarming vulnerability ("for so long i would not touch myself/ for fear of finding a body") and resistance against irresponsibly wielded power ("a corporation is a synonym for an individual who dreams in rare earth metals"). VERDICT Some readers unfamiliar with Sax's work may flinch at its unabashed sexuality, but the poet's sharp humor, imaginative breadth, and risky candor are expertly tuned to the varieties of human experience.—Fred Muratori