Poetry Reading: Scream / Queen by CD Eskilson

Please join us to celebrate the the poetry collection Scream / Queen by CD Eskilson. They will be joined at this reading by poet Séamus Isaac Fey.

Please note: Masks are required for our in-person events. This event is free to attend, but registration is recommended.

A debut poetry collection drawing on horror-movie tropes to examine the body—both its traumas and its possibilities.Scream / Queen, CD Eskilson’s debut poetry collection, examines queerness, mental illness, and transgender identity through the lens of thrillers and B movies. The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Michael Myers, and the Headless Horseman are just a few of the fright-film villains and monsters that populate this book.Eskilson’s formally innovative poems document how a body—a nonbinary transgender body, a chronically ill body, a body carrying trauma—can be understood, accepted, and healed even in a violent sociopolitical climate. Drawing on the language and images of horror cinema, the poems’ speakers find strength and the means to survive both family legacy and the pain inflicted on them: “I want to behemoth, be the biggest / violence in the galaxy,” says one who thinks about Godzilla and dreams of “learning how to roar.”

Though an atmosphere of trans panic and state legislation against trans bodies pervades the book, Scream / Queen ultimately conjures a world of hope and tenderness through connection and care. It celebrates all the body’s possibilities: the glorious and the monstrous. As a werewolf in the book says, “I kiss the moon; it took so long / to get here.”

CD Eskilson is a trans nonbinary poet and translator. Their work appears in the Kenyon Review, The Offing, Cincinnati Review, among others, and they are the poetry co-editor at Split Lip Magazine. CD’s debut poetry collection, Scream / Queen, is now available from Acre Books. Once, they were in a punk band.

Séamus Isaac Fey (he/him) is a Trans writer from Chicagoland. Currently, he is the poetry editor at Hooligan Magazine, and co creative director at Rock Pocket Productions. His debut poetry collection, decompose, is out with Not a Cult Media. He has an essay in Dopamine Press’ WITCH anthology (2025), edited by Michelle Tea. His work has appeared in American Poetry Review, Poet Lore, The Offing, Sonora Review, and others. He loves to beat his friends at Mario Party. Find him online @sfeycreates.

Accessibility: This event is hosted at the bookstore, which is a wheelchair accessible space. Masks are required. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis. To request ASL interpretation for this event, please email events@womenandchildrenfirst.com by no later than 14 days before the event. For other questions or access needs, please email events@womenandchildrenfirst.com.