I Now Pronounce You by Caroline Earleywine

 What does it mean to love someone well? What does it mean to be a good daughter, or a good wife? What does it look like to step outside the way these roles have been prescribed to us?

In her debut full-length collection, I Now Pronounce You, Caroline Earleywine explores these questions and more as she takes us on the journey of a daughter processing the emotional landscape of her parents’ divorce, an Arkansas public school teacher coming to terms with her queerness, and a wife navigating the vulnerable work it takes to love your partner along with yourself as you both grow and change.

Earleywine’s lyricism is as sharp as it is inviting, and so is her portrayal of a more nuanced truth. She leaves no stone unturned in her quest to free herself from the weight of shame and silence while trying to honor the truth of those around her.

An interrogation of traditions relating to marriage, gender, sexuality, and family, this book is for anyone who has looked up from the script of their lives and said, This isn’t working for me anymore, for anyone who needs permission to throw out the script entirely and live something more true.

Caroline Earleywine is a poet and educator who spent ten years teaching high school English in Central Arkansas. She’s a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, was a 2021 finalist for Nimrod’s Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, and has work in Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Barrelhouse, NAILED Magazine, and elsewhere. She earned her MFA from Queens University in Charlotte and her chapbook, Lesbian Fashion Struggles, was published with Sibling Rivalry Press in 2020. I Now Pronounce You is her first full-length collection. She lives in Little Rock with her wife and two dogs. You can keep up with her work at www.carolineearleywine.com.