Surviving Home is a potent collection of autobiographical poems about the harsh challenges of life as told from the perspective of a black American woman. Canyon’s collection deals with the piercing themes of family breakdown, addiction, racial disparity and loss of faith. These poems were written with a lot of nuance, to the point where they sometimes felt overwhelmingly abstract, but there was also an emotive sense of intention as well.

Some of my favourite poems in this collection include the following;

The Tyger, Interrupted

This poem left the most lasting impression on me. It is a dual narrative, whereby a girl’s reading of William Blake’s poem Tyger, Tyger is constantly interrupted by the chastisement of her mother. It has an understated profoundness that is telling. The mother’s efforts to quell her daughter’s reading is indicative of the expectations society places on women, especially those from low-income, ethnic minority backgrounds where any sense of academic agency is dismissed and familial submissiveness encouraged.

Follow the link to read the full review:

https://lochanreads.com/2021/07/11/book-review-surviving-home-by-katerina-canyon/