Gorgeously wrought prose poetry – sometimes overcomplicated – that challenges religious assumptions with tragic fury

Ami J. Sanghvi’s ‘Devolution’ is a rare beast; a collection of prose poetry with the fire and bite of 20- and 21st century confessional and political literature, and the linguistic mastery and complexity of the 18th-19th century classics. ‘Devolution’ is an intertextual work – like fanfiction, it engages with a prior text, in this case Dante’s Inferno, and challenges its ideas. ‘Devolution’ does an absolutely beautiful job of this. It pulls out a lot of Inferno’s assumptions, challenges notions about the Christian God himself, and beneath it all is an anger that many of us can understand if not directly share. I also really appreciate that the author of this collection – a direct response to Dante and a criticism of Christianity’s historical doctrines – is a queer, Indian woman.

Read the full review here.