* Winner of the 2016 CSU Poetry Center First Book Competition, se­lected by Daniel Borzutzky *

“McMullin sculpts this taut work from dream-logic and memory, visceral experience, what the body—the female body—holds. She uncovers histories, violence-against, exploitation, and the fear, shame, anger, and silences that live within the various speakers. Given our current socio-political landscape, the book is timely and necessary.”
—Sara Burant, OmniVerse

Praise for daughterrarium

“In a dish of fevered poppies, glassy ranunculus, and red tide hunger, the daughter infects herself. She’s infected by self, burning up until McMullin’s cool hand runs across the daughterrarium’s viral waters. Cancer, the crab, a sunrise that won’t clot. The neogothic daughter, her many manifestations bleed together in this prize-winning jailbreak. She says [t]ake me out of this bed and put me back in the grass, but really she’s taking us. Out, back. Give her your hand or get out of her way.”
—Danielle Pafunda

“What are we born into?… Where do the bodies go when they are taken away from themselves? How does a body heal itself? How does a body degrade itself? How does a body mourn and survive the trauma of fear, pain and abuse? I admire daughterrarium for pushing too far, for making me cringe with its representations of what one human can do to another, of what a body can do to itself. McMullin takes a tenacious look at violence and the abject while also interrogating, with great compassion, the nature of faith, family and growth.”
—Daniel Borzutzky

“‘There are those who have hurt you not because you are ignorant, but because you have a heart.’ Sheila McMullin’s daughterrarium is a collection of the kindest rage I have ever seen. The book chronicles, among its tendernesses, McMullin’s refusal to turn the rage onto herself… If you believe in rage, if you care deeply about women, then read this brilliant book again and again across your lifetime.”
—Sarah Vap

Sheila McMullin is a poet, intersectional feminist, youth ally, and organizer. She co-edited the collections Humans of Ballou and The Day Tajon Got Shot from Shout Mouse Press. She volunteers at her local animal rescue and holds an M.F.A. from George Mason University. Find more about her writing, editing, and activism online at www.moonspitpoetry.com.

Selected Reviews

OmniVerse

Heavy Feather Review

So To Speak Journal

More Information

“Daughterrariums Acts I-V” in Penny Review

Interview with #FemaleGaze Literary Review

Sheila McMullin Website