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Dawn Web is a poet to read, keep reading, and watch out for—a lyrical and formal genius delivering line after line of crafted perfection.
"Red Corner" is written and illustrated by Dawn Web, photographed by Angelina Wrona and published by Vivid Illusion Creative Studios Inc. "Red Corner" is part one of the collection Primary Series and showcases their poem "Flashbacks" which is also featured in Fathom Editorial (Creative Writing Journal). Dawn's raw and vulnerable tone explores themes of identity, love, growth, perseverance, and navigating intergenerational trauma aftermath to crack open and break the cycle. Writing is just one of the mechanisms that saved Dawn from themselves. They strive to bring that same medicine to others; bring individuals closer to themselves and others through art.
Dawn Web’s Red Corner—formally and conceptually genius—is a stunning testament to poetry’s capacity for mediating the intersections between the personal and the political. The collection folds together the intimacy and the magnitude with which contemporary life is lived. The poet takes on a lot in the writing: abuse, trauma, mental illness, gender identity, sexuality, racism, police brutality, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the problematics of settler-colonialism and capitalism. But while Web’s subject matter might initially read as eclectic, the power of their work lies in knowing that the individual is inseparable from, complicit in, and ever-influenced by all of the elements that we might take for granted as disparate. One of Web’s great strengths as a poet is in having the perspective and responsibility to see that the self and the current moment are profoundly interwoven.
Alternately heartbreaking and hopeful, Red Corner captures realities of the private life that shape an individual’s relationships with themself and with the people and events around them. The poems are works of confession, hurt, healing, growth, resilience, and commitment to speaking truthful observation of a troubled world. This collection preserves the experience of our current historical moment while also offering critique of our societal shortcomings. The poems that most directly engage with prejudice and violence in contemporary culture stir in the reader both reflection upon one’s own complicity and movement to action.
Web is a poet of great formal skill. Whether brief and succinct or essayistic and prosy, the lines of Red Corner are crisp. Nothing is wasted. Images, narratives, dreams, and memories are constructed with concise yet energetic language. Web’s largely free verse collection is peppered with exquisite musicality, employing end rhyme and internal rhyme inventively. Occasional bursts and glimmers of formal gestures, like acrostic, are effectively placed throughout. Web also uses the canvas of the page to its fullest visual potential. Lines break and spread and play with the white space in ways that allow the poem to embody their additional layers of movement or breath.
In short, Dawn Web has built something particularly special in Red Corner. This is a poet to pay attention to as new work emerges.
Reviewed by
Hello! I am writer/scholar with an MA in Creative Writing and a PhD in Literature from Miami University. My book reviewing interests include poetry, graphic novels, nonfiction, and children's & YA literature.
Synopsis
"Red Corner" is written and illustrated by Dawn Web, photographed by Angelina Wrona and published by Vivid Illusion Creative Studios Inc. "Red Corner" is part one of the collection Primary Series and showcases their poem "Flashbacks" which is also featured in Fathom Editorial (Creative Writing Journal). Dawn's raw and vulnerable tone explores themes of identity, love, growth, perseverance, and navigating intergenerational trauma aftermath to crack open and break the cycle. Writing is just one of the mechanisms that saved Dawn from themselves. They strive to bring that same medicine to others; bring individuals closer to themselves and others through art.
About the author
Dawn Web, BSc, TEFL is a queer and neurodivergent individual. A multi-media artist, first place award-winning dancer, feature author for Fathom: Creative Writing Journal, feature multi-instrumentalist in the band Wool Sweater, and the Creative Director for Vivid Illusion Creative Studios Inc. view profile
Published on March 19, 2024
Published by Vivid Illusion Creative Studios Inc.
20000 words
Contains mild explicit content ⚠️
Worked with a Reedsy professional 🏆
Genre: Poetry
Reviewed by
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