Mount Carmel and the Blood of Parnassus

Anaïs Duplan's second full-length collection is one that challenges. It opens with an essay whose physical printing, white text on black pages, is unique and the setup for an exploration of gender norms and the commodification of Black bodies in our culture. The collection of poems following the essay are standard black text on white pages but they question and challenge both the reader and the speaker. They challenge whiteness. The speaker repeatedly questions themselves, the publication of the chapbook, and their history. They call out the reader out. They call themselves out. In the end it is hard to note the distinction between speaker and reader.