Banana Pancakes

In this moving sequence of poems, Annalisa Hansford conveys betrayal, loss, and potential redemption through an agile reworking of the lyric and a reimagining of traditional and new poetic forms. These poems revisit former relationships “where every version of myself wants / what I can’t have,” and reveal the poet’s candid longing for love and absolution in language that is rich and evocative. In this second collection, Hansford’s arresting voice conveys an incontrovertible wisdom and grace that demonstrates, despite the inevitability of forfeiture and change, how close observation of the world’s largesse—be it avocado toast, a postcard, or the first taste of samphire—is potential for reconciliation and joy; for memories that are, once again, “fresh like a bundle of lavender.”

—Christine Casson, author of After the First World

Here in these poems we find the complex nature of queer entanglement mapped out for us in the sonnet. Annalisa traverses the past, the present, and the desired future, teaching us how powerful language is when held in the palm of these forms: crisp, cool, and courageous.

—Dare Williams, associate poetry editor at Hooligan Magazine

Annalisa Hansford (they/them) is the author of Romanticization of Grief and Ghosts (Bottlecap Press, 2025). Their poetry has received honors from the Academy of American Poets and the Boston Mayor’s Poetry Program. They’ve studied poetry with Gabrielle Calvocoressi and Victoria Chang at the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop. They previously interned at the Grolier Poetry Bookshop in Cambridge, where one of their favorite poets, Frank O’Hara, used to frequent.