Bloomer

Winner of the 2020 Louise Bogan Award, Bloomer, by Jessica Hincapie transports us to humid, wild Florida, where fear and fascination stand hand in hand. By invoking elements of death, religion and nature, Hincapie traverses the landscape of her youth, where "nights like these can trick you into thinking the disappearing can be beautiful too." Hincapie's bravery is found in her complete transparency, which reveals the adversity an artist faces when striving for success and a place in the world at large. Bloomer's poems pull us into a hazardous and tropical swampland of a speaker consistently confronted by the violence and wonderment of being alive.