Complete and Total Honesty (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798291711248)

A brutal, lyrical, and unflinching exploration of survival, faith, madness, and love, Complete and Total Honesty is a five-part poetic descent into the American South, mental illness, addiction, womanhood, and the sacred violence of becoming.

With haunting clarity and biting vulnerability, M. Anne Avera delivers a collection rooted in confession and reckoning. From the ghosts of church pews and psych wards to the feral tenderness of queer intimacy and familial grief, these poems interrogate the divine and the damned alike.

Structured across five thematic sections-Descent, Penance, Reckoning, Freedom, and a Postscript-this debut weaves ekphrastic reflections, narrative elegies, and surreal vignettes into a singular voice that is as raw as it is resonant. Featuring poems originally published in Fjords Review, Eunoia Review, Cathexis NorthWest, and more.

Perfect for readers of Ocean Vuong, Louise Glück, and Anne Sexton.

"Self-destruction means self-creation means survival."