Gold Star

Overview

In this candid and moving collection, Emma McKenna explores the multifaceted themes of bodily autonomy, capturing the empowerment of queer femme identity.

Drawn from the experience of growing up in poverty in a single-parent home and escaping to the city at the age of sixteen, these poems look at the physical and emotional implications of trauma but also reveal how being bisexual and disabled can be sources of resilience, joy, and creativity.

Examining the way sexism and sexual violence exist as a spectre throughout the lives of women and girls, Gold Star also contemplates issues of child abuse and neglect, reproductive health, and the complex decision to be child-free. Never shying away from the weight of its vital subject matter, this is an urgent and unflinching feminist exploration of embodiment. 

Author Biography

EMMA McKENNA is a multidisciplinary writer with a passion for women's histories and narratives. She received her PhD in English and Cultural Studies from McMaster University and has published widely on feminist issues. McKenna is also the author of Chenille or Silk, which was shortlisted for the 2020 Hamilton Literary Award for Poetry. Born in Duncan, British Columbia, and raised in Alberta, she currently lives in the Waterloo Region with her husband and two dogs.