{"product_id":"9781949944778","title":"Reverse Requiem","description":"Whiting Award-winning poet Ina Cariño's sophomore collection, \u003cem\u003eReverse Requiem\u003c\/em\u003e , explores mental health and wellness, ancestry and lineage, and the enduring complexities of human connection. In a world marked by the failures of capitalism, \u003cem\u003eReverse Requiem\u003c\/em\u003e speaks to the lonely parts within all of us-and to the love that persists within community and ourselves, despite everything.\u003cbr\u003eThese soulful and elegiac poems, written in Cariño's signature saturated lines, follow a speaker shaped by both subtle and profound personal tragedies. The collection's emotional resonance is deepened by its formal inventiveness: poems shift in length, tone, and use of white space, mirroring the fractured, nonlinear journey at the book's heart. The title, \u003cem\u003eReverse Requiem\u003c\/em\u003e, suggests a retracing of a life: rather than unfolding chronologically, the poems are guided by the speaker's shifting mental and emotional states. Early pieces carry a stark, dirge-like weight that gradually gives way to glimmers of hope-proposing that healing, though never linear, remains within reach. \u003cbr\u003eCariño wrote \u003cem\u003eReverse Requiem\u003c\/em\u003e gradually, over the course of a year spent immersed in other creative disciplines, including music and visual art. A mentor once told them, \"Even if you stop writing, you're never truly leaving it behind-you're always a writer if you stay open to the world.\" That openness permeates this collection. Where \u003cem\u003eFeast\u003c\/em\u003e, Cariño's debut, turned inward, \u003cem\u003eReverse Requiem\u003c\/em\u003e reaches outward. While it remains grounded in introspection, this second book reflects a year of emotional risk and connection-extending itself toward the world and those who inhabit it.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Ina Cariño","offers":[{"title":"Alice James Books |  Paperback \/ softback | Trade paperback (US) |  2026-04-24","offer_id":47353560072447,"sku":"9781949944778","price":30.95,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0329\/9075\/7001\/files\/BNCImageAPI_1853c1fc-1140-42d9-bd7b-22c822b741c4.jpg?v=1760540739","url":"https:\/\/riverbookshop.com\/products\/9781949944778","provider":"River Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}