Drawing on tales to explore roles—and whiteness

Holly Karapetkova seems to me a poet who understands the power of spells, of arranging words so that they get to a more primal level of meaning beyond whatever ordinary situation her words describe. The first poem in Dear Empire (Gunpowder Press, 2025)could almost be a blessing or spell for motherhood. The words hang in such a way that something slightly unreal—gift or curse—seems about to break through.