Giving My Body Away

A complimentary eBook Giveaway!

An Ebook Giveaway!

I’m delighted to announce my twice-Elgin Award nominated poetry collection and debut book, The Body as Haunted, is now available directly from the publisher, Authortunities Press. This was the book that launched Authortunities Press.

I have a reviewer code if you’re interested in reading the 2024 poetry book I crawled out of being a secret writer with.

Slip into my DMs (and my body) for your code.

If you would like a complimentary ebook in exchange for considering leaving an honest review on the book’s shop page, I have a code to allow you to download the EPUB and PDF.

There’s no obligation for you to leave a positive review—or a review at all. If you want a copy, DM me for the special code to use at checkout!

---

Every body is haunted.

The question is what we allow to live there.

In The Body as Haunted, Pixie Bruner opens the doors and lets everything in.

Ghosts. Cancer. Sex. Mothers. Lovers. Rage. Consumer culture. Jewish memory. Bad poetry. Good fucks. Bodies that betray us, bodies other people try to define for us, and bodies stubborn enough to keep wanting long after they have every reason not to.

Bruner’s debut collection is a visceral collision of horror, confession, satire, grief, desire, and black humor. These are poems with scalpels in their pockets and lipstick on their teeth equally willing to dissect the culture around us and the vulnerable flesh beneath it.

Nothing escapes examination: our obsession with beauty and thinness, the commodification of bodies, social-media performance, literary pretension, sexual violence, illness, mortality, gender, aging, love, and the dangerous human hunger to be seen and remembered.

Yet beneath the knives, ghosts, blood, and wicked laughter lies something startlingly tender.

A daughter lights a candle for her dead mother. A lover longs to become permanent in a world where everything washes away. Two bodies cling together against the possibility of loss. Hope pushes through concrete like a dandelion where nothing tender should have survived.

The Body as Haunted is for readers who want poetry that does more than comfort them. It provokes. It seduces. It wounds.

It laughs at the wound.

And then, when we are no longer looking, it reaches inside and touches something painfully alive.

Enter willingly.

The ghosts are expecting you.

https://authortunitiespress.com/b/the-body-as-haunted-eb

Cover Art- “Basic Ghost, 2024, Pencil and Paper, Gemma Files.

“A haunting reflection of humanity.”—Joe Mynhardt, Crystal Lake Entertainment

Pixie Bruner’s brilliant debut, ‘The Body As Haunted’ engages every sensory emotion in a poetic voice that feels weighted and lived in. It combines the contemporary horrors of our times with the vulnerability of an emotional genius. Pixie interweaves pain and humor, with the vision of a soothsayer, her words leading us to unique vistas in a space of the extraordinary within the mundane. She has crafted a dark love letter to poetry itself, with ‘tombs in her eyes’ for ‘surely you know that poets wind up killing each other’ and that “Poetry thanks you for it choosing you”—a must-read.”  - Jamal Hodge, Multi-award winning filmmaker and award-winning poet, author of The Dark Between The Twilight

'Pixie Bruner is The Queen Bitch of American poetry - think Lou Reed's Berlin starring Lydia Lunch as both Jim & Caroline while Virginie Despentes sits smoking in the directors chair & reworking the script to include 'Kicks', 'Orphans' & 'Double Barrel Prayer' & you've got something close to “The Body is Haunted”, close but not complete. Bruner’s poetry has more force & precision than any of her well picked enemies expected as they each fall beneath her six inch heels" - David Noone , author Saint of the City

“With rawness and scalpel-like precision in contrast with the macabre humor and the eloquent rage, Pixie Bruner’s poetry is much more intense than most fiction.  It's kind of like something you want to flinch away from but can't help looking at because it's so compelling, like an image from a Cronenberg film. It haunts and obsesses.” Alison Armstrong author Revenance  and Consorting with the Shadow: Phantasms and the Dark Side of Female Consciousness

...what the hell just happened. Dark, guttural utterances, this is poetry that bleeds onto the page. This debut collection haunts like a dream with razor wire recall and smoky, backroom recollections. Bruner pulls no punches. She takes no prisoners. She will leave you bleeding on the floor, winded and wondering what the hell just happened. —Angela Yuriko Smith

“Unapologetic, enigmatic, and incendiary. Bruner lays the world bare, in all its beauty and savagery, and dares you to peer closer. Do yourself a favor and take that dare. This is some hella sexy verse. - Gregg Stewart   -author, musician, composer, journalist,  filmmaker

“If Patti Smith had never met Lenny Kaye and not been bound to three chords and the truth.  reminds me of the poetry readings at St. Marks Church in the 70s.”- David Agosta, Civil Rights/ADA Advocate, photographer, musician 

““No part of the body, in all of its labyrinthine and convoluted corridors, whether corporeal or congregational, is free from Pixie’s slicing laser eyes The frisson is real, fellow sailors… a panacea into the body politic that refutes the bland, plastic reassurances of the current crop of uninspired poetry slam refugees hailing from the land of vapid platitude. — Kris Nelson, musician, writer

‘pixie bruner writes gripping, macabre, emotional autopsies and then invites you to make the next incision.”—  ayana walker, author of Daddies, Demons, and The Dawn

“Strong, dark, and passionate, The Body as Haunted takes no prisoners. The collection holds up a mirror to our dysfunctional society, challenging attitudes and shallow minds, pulling us down from the pedestal of self-righteousness with words of both anger and humour. Strident verse is mixed with quieter, more reflective poems to allow the reader a moment’s respite before diving back into themes which hit a nerve in the most profound manner. Relatable, remarkable, an excellent collection truly deserving of a reader’s time.” -- Stephanie Ellis, author and poet.

"A gorgeous series of raw, beautiful, soulful and haunting poems coupled with unique pride in Jewish heritage and unmitigated passion. Pixie Bruner's "The Body As Haunted" is an exquisite example of poetry that demands to be recognized for the art it is." -- Zachary Rosenberg, author 

"The Body as Haunted is a vulnerable yet tenebrous web of poems exploring every facet of the human condition. The deeper you read, the tighter your chest feels as the stanzas enclose you in their wake. Pixie Bruner peels back each callus with an intimate touch, revealing the wonder, awe, and mystery underneath. Highly recommended."-- Grant Wamack,author of Bullet Tooth. 

“the body as haunted opens to the long poem "trigger warning" which digs into your brain and makes you evaluate yourself, than proceeds to excavate your softness, holding you to search your thoughts. these poems, one after the other, travel, and uncover, and unearth. when the collection ends, you feel 'too damn empty.'” -- John Compton-poet

"Strap the F in because Pixie Bruner does not tread lightly. This is poetry for hospital wards."

— Sean Malia Thompson, author of They Never Find the Bodies in Whispering Pines

“Pixie Bruner’s poetry will dangle you over a cliff of sensation by the scruff of your neck while cupping your cheek in its hand. Get ready to fall.” —Amabilis O’Hara, poet

“The Body as Haunted is a poetry book full of evocative thought and robust, powerful language. It doesn’t pull any punches while delivering a deep emotional resonance for the reader. The poems are dark and forceful, exploring the deep underbelly of human nature and society. This is not sweet, wholesome poetry, but the words will worm into your brain stirring interpretations and reflections. It is exactly what poetry should be and I highly recommend it.” —A. F.Stewart

The Body As Haunted by Pixie Bruner (Authortunities Press, 2024). 58 ... a disturbing and often erotic exploration of bodies, those that haunt and those that are haunted.... Bruner shows us ... some of the many pitfalls (and a few opportunities) that come with having a body, in particular a woman’s body. ... “Hell is other people.” In some cases Hell might be the self.... feminist horror poetry, and may not be for everyone. Some ... are uncompromisingly frank. Others, while quite macabre, are actually funny. Most of the poems appear in the book for the first time....

“’You’d Be ____If You____’” is a quite reasonable answer to a kind of nonsense all too commonly foisted upon women:

... I wore a shorter skirt and had it wrapped upon your neck as I wrung and pulled, feet braced against the side of your head, until I heard a satisfying “pop” from your spinal column.

“Trigger Warnings” takes a dim view of us, of people, and the things we do to ourselves and each other.“Semaglutide Poetry” worries about body image,“The Dogma of Good Fucks,” is about that. And there is more, so much more.

... an impressive first collection, and should please anyone looking for a gritty feminist exploration of the body and of the self.

—David C. Kopaska-Merkel