RECORD RECORD SERIES
Burning Thing, by Zoë Bodzas
Spring 2025
Open for pre-order now!
“Picture me this / an abundance of the mind” opens Zoë Bodzas’ Burning Thing, and this dazzling chapbook offers just that. Playful, curious, intelligent, and wildly original, the abundance of Bodzas’ mind leaps confidently in all directions to create a singular poetic sensibility. This is a place where language is alive and surprising, where Squidward, Johnny Cash, small dogs in leather bags, flag football, and Tupperware make up the tapestry of that most burning thing—love. Bodzas invites us to move through the world with kaleidoscopic eyes, and we are lucky to be along for the ride.”
-Natasha Rao
“Burning Thing is a stunning collection of poems that takes us deep into the “abundance of the mind”—and I could stay within the mind of this book forever. Within the world of Zoë Bodzas’s work we find both deep appreciation of connection and discerning awareness of the way the trajectory of our society has brought us to loneliness. Steeped in premonitions, Burning Thing asks us to imagine an uneasy future living in “the light of a dead star,” but it also, with each gorgeous line, extends a hand to help us get there. Even at the end, Bodzas shows, life is still burning.”
-Megan Cummins
“Zoë’s poems are all at once nostalgic and experimental. She plays with language in a way that feels accessible and yet daring. You feel close to these memories and fragments and yet delicately estranged. This first chapbook is so definitely a knockout—a pleasure to read with plenty of room to breathe.”
-Nico Bryan
RECORD RECORD is a series of debut chapbooks by NYC poets that consider the myriad ways our spacetime bends, warps, and frays across our shared realities. These chapbooks archive, calculate, and remix within the landscapes of cities, cosmos, and crises, offering language for motion and survival.
Series editors: Ashna Ali, Nico Bryan, Arden Levine & danilo machado
Cover design: Rodrigo Moreira
The Record Record series was made possible by the generous support of Ashna Ali, Julia Brandt, Joey De Jesus, Joel Dodge, Sarah Glidden, Jim Hayman, Karen Hildebrand, Peter Johnson, Arden Levine, danilo machado, Monica McClure, Navila Nahid, Leila Ortiz, Christine Scanlon, David Solo, Susanna Stephens, Kendra Sullivan, Morgan Võ, Candace Williams, Matthew Williams & Ariel Yelen.
free pdf available later this year
Donations (suggested $2-10) for pdf downloads support the production of upcoming chapbooks.