Cupid, Grown by Adam Panichi
Cupid, Grown by Adam Panichi is an exploration of queer identity, desire, and memory, rendered with sharp lyricism and cinematic intimacy. Moving between past and present, myth and the everyday, the collection navigates the tensions of masculinity, tenderness, and self-recognition. Panichi unravels personal and cultural histories-where gender is both inherited and reshaped, love is a battleground and a sanctuary, and language itself becomes a site of transformation. Rooted in the domestic and the mythic, these poems carve space for longing, reinvention, and the quiet, radical act of survival. PRAISE FOR Cupid, Grown: Adam Panichi's poems are charged with a compelling physicality, unpacking masculinity as they chart an autobiographical narrative of queer development, influenced by his exposure to Italian custom. The phrasing here is textured and visceral but there are also tender pieces which bring in lovers or family members in beautifully stirring ways. This is intense, intimate and poignant writing. - John McCullough As a poet and reader, and as a critic specialised in poetry, I have followed the work of Adam Panichi for many years, ever since it was recommended to me by Ella Frears, a talented poet whom I have translated, anthologised (Planetaria, Taut Editori, 2020) and published in Italy (Resplendi, cara, Taut Editori, 2023). From the first texts I was able to read (Snow, Cupid, Grown and Carciofi), the original core of the collection now ready for publication, I was able to appreciate the originality and structural rigor of his distinct voice, the irony and thematic freshness, and his ability to move beyond the reassuring boundaries of rhetoric and the swamps of contemporary banality. - Alberto Pellegatta A pamphlet of inexhaustible poems that can be read over and over again, releasing new emotions each time. A heady, human mixture of vulnerability and grit. - Caroline Bird
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