Books

ESH Leighton’s debut collection: Backwards Births isn’t just an assemblage of poetry. It’s a tribute to the arc of life, from death ever backward toward womb. 

Separated into four distinct parts, Backwards Births examines the discovery of beauty in death, grief, and aging. What it is to be a woman, married but childless. The evolution from young adult to actualized self. And the dichotomy of the old soul—to be at once young and old in a world where there is space for neither.

Simultaneously longing for connection and thirsty for social distance, Backwards Births illustrates the ambivert’s plight with stunning imagery and fierce intent.