Deviant

Deviant traces a trajectory of queer self-discovery from childhood to adulthood, examining love, fear, grief, and the violence that men are capable of in intimate same-sex relationships. Richly engaged with the tangible and experiential, Patrick Grace's confessional poetry captures profound, sharp emotions, tracking a journey impacted equally by beauty and by brutality. Coming-of-age identity struggles are recalled with wry wit, and dreamlike poems embrace adolescent queer love and connections as a way to cope with the fear and cruelty that can occur in gay relationships. Later poems in the collection recall vivid moments of psychological trauma and stalking and explore the bias of the justice system toward gay men. Collecting memories, dreams, and fears about sexual identity, Deviant makes important contributions to queer coming-of-age and intimate partner violence narratives. Deviant traces a trajectory of queer self-discovery from childhood to adulthood, examining love, fear, grief, and the violence that men are capable of in intimate same-sex relationships.



• I
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• Why Not
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• Dastardly
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• Nick the Dick
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• The First
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• A Cone of Light
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• Watergun
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• Ravine
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• Traffic Light
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• Nightcallv







• II
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• Layover
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• Strawberry Island
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• Arthur
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• Teardown
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• Student Debt
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• Caterpillar
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• The Dark Gap
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• It's Like That, Is It
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• The Circuit
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• III
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• The Big Dark
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• Someday You Will Ache
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• You look older
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• Afloat
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• Touch Anywhere to Begin
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• As If
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• The Floor Was Water
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• The Gaslighter
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• As You Were
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• switchrail
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• IV
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• A Violence
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• Heatwave
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• document
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• Vermilion
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• Therefore
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• soft stalker
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• The Tunnel
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• Tilt
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• The Mayfly
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• Make Good
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• V
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• The Calling
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• fullblown
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• Fission
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• Meanwhile"
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Deviant traces a trajectory of queer self-discovery from childhood to adulthood, examining love, fear, grief, and the violence that men are capable of in intimate same-sex relationships. "Deviant deftly and with heartbreaking tenderness explores the beauty, yearning, grief, and boundless cycles of discovery involved in queer realization. With a narrative poise that invites the reader in as an intimate witness, Patrick Grace lays down a mosaic of moments that capture the wonders and cruelties of queer being, from heat-warped summer days to coiling truck exhaust and late urban nights. Grace's poetry is a gift-at once confessional and intimate, yet allowing the queer reader to find themselves time and again within the verse. Deviant is an earnest testament to the way a life unfolds in the face of societal rigidities, told with a voice that carries a mesmerizing composure, yet which surges with the undercurrents of a fierce and luminous poetic grace." Rhiannon Ng Cheng Hin, author of Fire Cider Rain "Imagine a poem as a traffic light, blinking "stop, go, and wait." In the hands of Patrick Grace, a phrasemaker of immense skill, these states are combined and recombined to form a highway to the living, breathing world. Deviant is the best kind of poetic debut-written to stand out, and in doing so subverting all expectation." Jim Johnstone, author of The King of Terrors "The glinting and sensually rich poems in Grace's Deviant are in possession of such a harrowing nostalgia. Tread carefully, but tread nonetheless." John Elizabeth Stintzi, author of Junebat "In Deviant, Patrick Grace calls out from the charged and sometime