Calling a Wolf a Wolf

Description

In this lyrical, emotionally charged collection, Kaveh Akbar turns the act of naming into a form of courage—asking what it means to tell the truth about desire, grief, faith, and the selves we try to become. Across poems that move between intimacy and revelation, the book follows a speaker navigating love and loss, cultural inheritance, and the complicated work of healing, where every confession carries its own shadow. With striking imagery and a voice that feels both conversational and incantatory, Akbar explores themes of identity, transformation, and the thin line between devotion and longing. Part memoir in spirit and part poetic inquiry, these poems invite readers to recognize their own contradictions and to call what they feel—without flinching.

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