Ladies Lazarus

Book excerpt: Literary Nonfiction. Essays. LGBTQIA Studies. Women's Studies. Longlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. Equal parts séance, polemic, and love letter, Piper J. Daniels' LADIES LAZARUS examines evangelical upbringing, sexual trauma, queer identity, and mental illness with a raw intensity that moves between venom and grace. Fueled by wanderlust, Daniels travels the country, unearthing the voices of forgotten women. Girls and ghosts speak freely, murdered women serve as mentors, and those who've languished in unmarked graves convert their names to psalms. At every turn, Daniels invites the reader to engage, not in the soothing narrative of healing, but in the literal and metaphorical dynamism of death and resurrection. "Beautifully written collection of 11 lyric essays... [Daniels] emerges as an empowering and noteworthy voice."--Publishers Weekly "Piper J. Daniels is going to rip the essay world apart. LADIES LAZARUS is the best debut I've read in a long time. Daniels has resurrected the personal essay and what it is and what it can do."--Jenny Boully "An extremely intelligent, impressively understated, and achingly powerful work."--David Sheilds "A siren song from planet woman, a love letter from the body, a resistance narrative against the dark."--Lidia Yuknavitch