Hi, Ashe! I'm really interested in buying one of your books, but I've only read some of the poems you posted on tumblr so far and I wondered, would you recommend buying Belly of the Beast (because it's your first book) or would you say it doesn't really ma

Hi!! First of all, thank you so much!!

To answer your question, there’s certainly not a specific order you /need/ to read the books in. They aren’t related to one another so you won’t be missing anything if you start with my second one.

The books are largely about the same thing–they both tackle recovery and self-discovery, but from very different angles. Belly of the Beast is about weaponizing femininity and making friends with your dark parts and becoming sharp around the edges. Wrong Side of a Fistfight is kind of the opposite of that–it’s about seeing all the places where you made yourself hard for the sake of survival and learning to unclench your fist.

I’m very proud of both books and there is a lot of my heart in each of them.
Wrong Side of a Fistfight is probably a little more polished because I learned soooo much in putting together my first book that I got to capitalize on in my second one. Belly of the Beast is older [about a year, now, since I submitted the manuscript for publishing] so my style has changed since then. So Wrong Side of a Fistfight will probably look more like the poetry that you’re reading on the blog, now.

Anyway, I’m rambling! It’s really up to you!