Out of Order - Paperback

by Alexis Sears (Author)

Out of Order, winner of the 2021 Donald Justice Poetry Prize, is the debut collection of Alexis Sears, featuring formally diverse poems that address topics from misogyny and mental health to race and identity.

In this collage of unapologetic intimacy, risk-taking vulnerability, and unwavering candor, a biracial millennial woman navigates the challenges of growing out of girlhood and into womanhood with its potential dangers, interrogating the male gaze, beauty standards, and confidence and identity. Pop culture references run through the collection, with rock icons David Bowie and Prince and poets like Kenneth Koch offering windows into desire and adaptation. In these poems, Sears works through heavy topics, such as loneliness, mental illness, chronic pain, the legacies of race and racism, and the aftermath of a father's suicide. As she writes, "I'm learning something every ravishing day / and none of it is easy."

This young poet demonstrates an uncommon mastery of craft, writing in forms including the sonnet redoublé, sestina, canzone, and villanelle. With all her linguistic skills, Sears's work remains approachable, offering readers a striking blend of honesty, humor, anguish, joy, and surprise. Drawing influence from contemporary poets like Mark Jarman, Erica Dawson, and Tiana Clark, Sears cuts a path of her own.

Author Biography

Alexis Sears received her BA in Writing Seminars from Johns Hopkins University and her MFA in poetry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her first book, Out of Order, won the 2021 Donald Justice Poetry Prize (judged by Quincy Lehr) and was published by Autumn House Press in 2022. In 2023, Judge Allison Joseph awarded it the Best Book of 2022 for the Poetry by the Sea Book Award. A scholar at the Sewanee Writers' Conference in 2019, her work has been widely published and she is currently serving as Editor-at-Large of the Northwest Review and Contributing Editor of Literary Matters. She teaches ninth-grade English in Oakland, California.