news | Tuesday March 31, 2026

the berry takes the shape of the bloom in Arc Poetry Magazine

Paisley Conrad writes about the berry takes the shape of the bloom by andrea bennett in Arc Poetry Magazine. bennett’s stellar book of poetry won second place in the 11th annual Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry and explores themes of gender, family, trans parenthood, and becoming. Conrad says: :“An archive of feeling that is carefully rendered in fragments and ruptures … a statement of emotional physics … the berry takes the shape of the bloom does not offer narrative, closure, or catharsis. What it offers instead is a meditation of intimate survival – one that lingers in what cannot yet be resolved and asks what else might take shape in that refusal.” Read Conrad’s complete piece here.