Burner Boys

Will Madden

From Sunset Press, DESC HERE

Published in the Spring 2024 Collection.

“In Burner Boys by Will Madden, every line hums and 'wrestles strongly with the weight/ of the great electric' that he is. This book not only speaks of the current, it is a current, connecting the push and pull of our times, of the body. The result is absolutely magnetic."

TOMÁS MORÍN
"There is a gorgeous restlessness in the various forms these poems take as they describe the experience of growing up trans in Oklahoma. The conflicts are many–body and state, body and history, body and body–but all of these are reconfigured into a gritty joy. In particular, it’s the joy of singing that this collection recommends most often. Faced with tragedy and bigotry, singing at first feels impossible, but by the end it becomes this poet’s mandate: 'I must sing.' And he does. Will Madden sings a necessary song."

ANDREW GRACE
In Burner Boys, Will writes, 'once, there was a boy who listened to my song and called it beautiful.' The poems capture colorful and ambitious moments of a history that should not be forgotten. With a familial longing for love, this collection is full of songs that calibrate memory, of prayers for no one in particular and of historical realignments through self-portraits. This is a brilliant celebration and rendition of identity through the pastoral and ecological landscape.

HUSSAIN AHMED

“In Burner Boys by Will Madden, every line hums and 'wrestles strongly with the weight/ of the great electric' that he is. This book not only speaks of the current, it is a current, connecting the push and pull of our times, of the body. The result is absolutely magnetic."