Hachi Chuku is one of the best, most brilliant, most versatile, and most distinctive writers I have ever come across, and this chapbook marks the official start of what will no doubt be a wildly successful career. Thoughtful, intimate, expansive, and beautiful, Masquerading as a Gastropoda is a true treasure and an absolute pleasure to explore.
Jennifer Croft, author of The Extinction of Irena Rey
Masquerading as a Gastropoda is a gutsy examination of a young poet’s longing for parental connection as they journey through the transformation of child to surviving adult. Hachi Chuku is exceptional at their craft, balancing each line with generous vulnerability and ferocious syntax, allowing readers an opportunity to not only climb inside the shell of Chuku’s becoming but bear witness to their own. What a gift to the planet of poetry.
Rachel McKibbens, New York Foundation for the Arts poetry fellow and author of Pink Elephant
In this powerful debut collection, Masquerading as a Gastropoda, Hachi Chuku reveals how trauma rewrites the mind and body. The chapbook examines how romantic relationships and familial bonds serve as both cause and remedy and how survivors undergo a process akin to carcinization, acquiring a crab-like armor as a coping strategy. Chuku’s lyrics of somatic vulnerability and endurance—“in riddles, / rhymes, metaphors”—become a guide for recognizing the transformation and reclaiming ownership of one’s life.
Kaveh Bassiri, author of 99 Names of Exile and Elementary English
Title: Masquerading as a Gastropoda
Author: Hachi Chuku
Publisher: Rockwood Press
Released: 2026 - March
Format: chapbook, acid-free paper, silk cover
Pages: 36
Price: $10
ISBN: 978-1-59498-226-2
Hachi Chuku is one of the best, most brilliant, most versatile, and most distinctive writers I have ever come across, and this chapbook marks the official start of what will no doubt be a wildly successful career. Thoughtful, intimate, expansive, and beautiful, Masquerading as a Gastropoda is a true treasure and an absolute pleasure to explore.
Jennifer Croft, author of The Extinction of Irena Rey
Masquerading as a Gastropoda is a gutsy examination of a young poet’s longing for parental connection as they journey through the transformation of child to surviving adult. Hachi Chuku is exceptional at their craft, balancing each line with generous vulnerability and ferocious syntax, allowing readers an opportunity to not only climb inside the shell of Chuku’s becoming but bear witness to their own. What a gift to the planet of poetry.
Rachel McKibbens, New York Foundation for the Arts poetry fellow and author of Pink Elephant
In this powerful debut collection, Masquerading as a Gastropoda, Hachi Chuku reveals how trauma rewrites the mind and body. The chapbook examines how romantic relationships and familial bonds serve as both cause and remedy and how survivors undergo a process akin to carcinization, acquiring a crab-like armor as a coping strategy. Chuku’s lyrics of somatic vulnerability and endurance—“in riddles, / rhymes, metaphors”—become a guide for recognizing the transformation and reclaiming ownership of one’s life.
Kaveh Bassiri, author of 99 Names of Exile and Elementary English
Title: Masquerading as a Gastropoda
Author: Hachi Chuku
Publisher: Rockwood Press
Released: 2026 - March
Format: chapbook, acid-free paper, silk cover
Pages: 36
Price: $10
ISBN: 978-1-59498-226-2
