Body Losing Its Borders - zakia henderson-brown

The Body Losing Its Borders is a debut collection shaped by the convergence of profound personal loss and a world rapidly shifting around it. Written across the politically volatile years surrounding the poet’s brother’s cancer diagnosis, these poems trace the disorientation and transformation that follow grief’s arrival. 

Against this stands a country in fracture—women’s bodily autonomy is increasingly under threat, and Black communities are organizing in response to escalating state violence. These poems inhabit that simultaneity, navigating histories both inherited and self-forged as the poet works to untangle the gnarled roots of race, love, violence, and family.

Told through a Black feminist lens, the collection explores the ways we learn to survive what attempts to undo us, and how we come into our own power in the process. With a voice that is clear-eyed, assured, and deeply attentive, The Body Losing Its Borders charts the ongoing work of becoming: not despite the world’s pressures, but through them.