Author Event: Mackenzie Kozak - No Swaddle

Mackenzie Kozak is a poet living in Asheville, North Carolina. She holds a BA from Wake Forest University and an MFA from UNC-Greensboro, where she served as Poetry Editor of The Greensboro Review. ?Currently, she is an Associate Editor at Orison Books and works as a therapist specializing in grief counseling. Mackenzie's poetry appears in Boston Review, DIAGRAM, jubilat, Missouri Review, Sixth Finch, THRUSH Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. Her debut collection, no swaddle, was awarded the Iowa Poetry Prize and will be published by the University of Iowa Press in 2025.

This collection examines the complex question of whether or not to bear children. Through a series of untitled American sonnets, the poems speak to themes of origin and desire, noting the shame that can accompany such a decision. Many poetry collections speak to the varied griefs of becoming a mother, losing a child, or being unable to have a child, but this collection gives specific voice to another grief that feels unspeakable: the possible conclusion of not wanting to be a mother.