Pitiful
Poems
$33.16
- Paperback
112 pages
- Release Date
14 July 2026
Summary
“This poem begins where Bulimia ends
or maybe, just maybe, when it started. Where
the differential diagnosis is confused
by decades of self-made violence. Poverty,
colonialism, god, all prisms that will shatter
one day, if not now…”
Part self-interrogation, part confession, part hospital diary, the intense, heartbreakingly frank poems in Brandi Bird’s second collection detail the author’s ongoing struggles with eating disorders and depression, c…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781487014087 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1487014082 |
| Author: | Brandi Bird |
| Publisher: | House of Anansi Press Ltd ,Canada |
| Imprint: | House of Anansi Press Ltd ,Canada |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 112 |
| Release Date: | 14 July 2026 |
| Dimensions: | 203mm x 146mm |
What They're Saying
Critics Review
“Pitiful is a vital battle cry and a song.” —Marya Hornbacher, New York Times–bestselling author of Wasted and Madness
“Pitiful, in strong and beautiful verse, answers back to the biomedical failure to recognize the human inside of the hospital gown.” —Fawn Parker, author of Hi, It’s Me
”Pitiful is a deep dive into the chorus of eating disorders, fatphobia, Indigenous desire, and the white aesthetic. It is an Indigiqueer hymnal for those of us who plead and pledge our hungers holy and otherwise.” —Joshua Whitehead, author of Jonny Appleseed
“Bird’s poems are perfect units of attention. Fleshy, charged by hunger and rage.” — The Grind
“A triumph.” — British Columbia Review
“[Pitiful is] powerful and vivid, filled with rage and desire.” — Winnipeg Free Press
About The Author
Brandi Bird
Brandi Bird is an Indigiqueer Saulteaux, Cree, and Metis writer and editor from Treaty 1 territory. They currently live and learn on the land of the Squamish, the Tsleil-Waututh, and the Musqueam peoples (Surrey, B.C).
Their debut poetry collection, The All + Flesh (Anansi, 2023), won an Indigenous Voices Award and was a finalist for both the Gerald Lampert and the Governor General’s awards. Brandi Bird is currently completing an MFA at the University of British Columbia.
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