Cover art by Clarisse Provido
praise for Feast
“‘To be other is to read badly- / drawn maps,’ writes Ina Cariño, ‘to hum / with a revolutionary's love song.’ I love the vividness of these poems, the language of the senses that's so alive on each page of Feast. But these poems aren't just beautiful, sensual lyrics. There is more at stake here. Cariño is a kind of poet who claims family and identity with style that's akin to spell-making. ‘I dream in a tongue not my own’ the poet says—and we see it instantly: Here, even a simple act of cooking rice can become a ceremony, a rhapsody of liberation. All of this is done not with literary pretension but with vulnerability and honesty. If Ina Cariño says ‘names are spells,’ it is because this poet aims to write actual spells, and not just with the pen, but with breath: ‘I am the last spell, the only song left. deliberate utterance of bone’. Here, we are in presence of something special, I think. Bravo.”
— Ilya Kaminsky, author of Deaf Republic and Dancing in Odessa
“This book is not just a sensory feast, it’s a whole literary event—each poem full of candor and heart. It arrives dressed and dripping for a stunning, most spectacular debut!”
— Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of World of Wonders
“Ina Cariño’s Feast is an astonishing book of poems and a stunning debut. Ravishing in its linguistic dexterity and imagistic layering, this book makes me realize how rare it is to read poems this fully embodied. How is any body meant to live in a world this brutal? And yet. How can we not reach towards its indescribable beauty and sustenance? In this book the body is broken and the body is nourished in equal measure. ‘I knew that much—that breaking can mean release.’ Held in the unrelenting clutches of historical and intimate violence, the urge towards personal and communal liberation is a formal and emotional imperative. I’m so excited for this book and this poet to usher us through such a timely and necessary portal.”
— Gabrielle Calvocoressi, author of Rocket Fantastic
“…a lushly beautiful collection that follows a world populated by mothers and daughters, the food and plants that connect them, and their Filipinx culture and language.”
— Angela María Spring, Washington Independent Review of Books
“…We are hungry to understand our histories and our families in all their gluttony, temperance, and appetites. We want to know their stomach pangs, their favorite flavors, how they like to eat and how we can prepare that food for them. We are hungry for a poet who can put all this into words. Graciously inviting us through twilight and rain with the guidance of their balintataw, Ina Cariño provides us with this luscious, mystical, defiant Feast.”
— Amanda L. Andrei, Barrelhouse
“Cariño’s collection adeptly grapples with the tensions of existing in the United States as an immigrant and a queer person alongside the beauty of Filipino culture and lineage. Their debut feels boldly autobiographical, and Feast does not hesitate to use the physical body as a canvas to explore these themes. … There is no doubt that Ina Cariño is an important poet of our age, one who will not hesitate to share the stories they find in beautifully gripping detail.”
— Lena M. Tinker, The Harvard Crimson
“One morning, I listened to ‘Everything is Exactly the Same as it Was the Day Before’ and extra-knew I needed to read Cariño’s extraordinary debut as soon as possible.”
“Feast relays various lush feasts of language and of food.”
— Cindy Juyoung Ok, The Poetry Foundation’s Harriet Books
Appears in “13 New and Upcoming Poetry Collections to Pick Up if You’re Trying to Get into Poetry”at Buzzfeed