Defeat the Rest by Brett Hanley Pre-Order (Ships Nov 2 2020)

Defeat the Rest is an anxious romp of queer longing and self-invention. At times humorous and at other times heart-wrenching, this chapbook centers around poems addressed from a woman named Susan to a woman named Emily and includes guest appearances from minor characters like Bigfoot, a tropical storm, and Ferdinand the Bull. Hanley’s poems interrogate how various types of relationships and intimacies can both amplify loneliness and tamp it down. There’s an underlying sense of hope in Defeat the Rest for the chapbook’s speakers, who may not achieve the connection they want but may slowly be stumbling toward something even greater.

Brett Hanley is an assistant poetry editor for Southeast Review. She holds an MFA from McNeese State and is pursuing a PhD at Florida State. Her work is forthcoming or has recently been published in River Styx, Gulf Coast, Puerto del Sol, Yemassee, the minnesota review, Juked, Crab Creek Review, Underblong, North American Review, and Hotel Amerika.