Butch Geography

by Stacey Waite

Poetry. LGBT Studies. In her Los Angeles Review of Books essay "Who Is Who: Pronouns, Gender, and Merging Selves," Dana Levin describes Stacey Waite's fusion of gender identities: "Pseudonyms, heteronyms, personae, all the ventriloquizing literary arts; point of view and tonal shifts: these are tools for speakers and speaking. But the sentence too has a voice: 'i will not be the kind of boy who can not bear the memory of her body'... This is [Waite's] genius...to take innocuous syntactical phrasing and change the players mid-sentence--to get around English's pronominal either/or by creating a syntactical both/and...."

Genres: Poetry, Queer, LGBT, Lesbian, Nonfiction, College, Gender

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 31, 2013

About the author

Stacey Waite was the winner of the 2004 Frank O'Hara Prize for Poetry for her first chapbook entitled Choke, as well as the 2006 Main Street Rag Chapbook Contest for her chapbook Love Poem to Androgyny. She lives with her partner in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she studies Tai Chi, searches for old clay roof tiles and walks through Frick Park with her greyhound, Rohen. She has been teaching writing and gender studies courses at the University of Pittsburgh for the past four years, including such courses as Queer Theory, Writing and Consciousness, Fieldwork with the Body, and Sexuality and Representation. Her poems have appeared most recently in Poet Lore, Nimrod, 5AM, West Branch, Chiron Review, and Pearl. She enjoys tending to the ficus tree, ridding the yard of dead pine needles, and sweeping the front porch.

Reviews

[l · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favs: tits, all the on the occasion of being mistaken poems, coming out in the porch light, choke, xy, fixing my voice, reading stone butch blues, sandhill crane information session

The most piercing account of female dysphoria that I've encountered.

[Alison✌️ · Rating 5 out of 5]

stunning random library find!? i haven’t read poetry in quite some time and this really got me excited to read more again. i was completely knocked down with all the “on the occasion of...” poems and “reading stone butch blues” most of all

[✶ neo ✶ · Rating 5 out of 5]

chicas que poemario tan chulo!! es cortito y me gustó mucho la verdad, es todo súper sentido… qué decir amo a les butches elles son quienes sostienen el mundo con sus manos en mi opinión

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm very glad I found this and that I read this. I feel like I am able to think about somethings about my own life much clearer now. And I really love Waite's writing, and the cyclical nature of the themes.

Some favorites, for my reference:
'Butch Geography'
'Prince, the Androgynous'
'Love Poem to Androgyny'
'Reading Stone Butch Blues
'Butch Defines Feminism In the Following Ways'
'Clownfish'
'The Kind of Man I Am At the DMV'

[✩☽ · Rating 3 out of 5]

despite my radically different ideas around gender, i found this to be overall a moving personal account (particularly liked the 'on the occasion of' series, fixing my voice, sandhill crane information session and for tomboys) albeit some parts left me uncomfortable and the jabs at feminism were trite.

[Caroliena Cabada · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I was reading, I kept thinking, "Where has this collection been all my life?" The poems here deftly explore queerness and misfits by using language that feels simultaneously conversational and poetic. Personal favorites are "On the Occasion of Being Mistaken For..." poems. Stacey Waite is a marvel.

[isa · Rating 5 out of 5]

i loved this SO MUCH

[Tobi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of poems resonated. I’m glad I read it.

[Sarah Fogel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool poetry collection, nice sequencing, some really good ones in here. I don't usually read poetry but I wanna make an effort to do so more often

[Kit]

I liked this collection of poems. I especially the poems On the Occassion of Being Mistaken for a Man by a Waiter While Having Breakfast with My Mother and Sandhill Crane Information Session.

[my scary library]

I never read poetry but I adored this collection

[V · Rating 5 out of 5]

My mom recommended this to me to try to get me into poetry, and it worked. I connected with these poems in a way I hadn’t really with her other recommendations.

[tanisha]

read like a memoir! title track was probably my favorite, but we both disagreed about cathedrals.

[Hillary Connor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my favorite poetry book I’ve read in a while. The discomfort and fluidity expressed about the author’s relationship to their body is so heart wrenching and real.

[Anabelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

on the occasion of getting my heart fucking stomped out by stacey waite in late april of 2025

[J Kuria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it. Poetry is really doing a lot for me lately.

Some faves include:
Coming Out in Porch Light
Tits
XY
Reading Stone Butch Blues
Talk Show
For Tomboys
The Kind of Man I Am at the DMV
A Poem In Response to Those Who Argue That My Desire to Purposefully Remove My Breasts is an Anti-Feminist Notion

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am after the stupid ice bobbing up and down in her drink, / so stupid it doesn't even know it is always already / made out of wet. (38)

[Emily Krueger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had really high expectations for this book, and they fell flat. It had a couple good lines, but nothing major. Good concept, but not my kind of poetry.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 4.5 of 5 thorns

[Sarah Klapka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some really good poems in here!