By S. Yarberry
A speculative poetic history reimagining Robert Blake, the brother of the poet William Blake, as a trans person in the eighteenth century.
Publication Date: November 17th, 2026
Paperback: 9781646054503
eBook: 9781646054510
Description
A speculative poetic history reimagining Robert Blake, the brother of the poet William Blake, as a trans man in the eighteen century.
Blending deeply researched historical details with the author’s personal experiences, The Robert Poems playfully and critically imagines a trans literary archive during a period in which transness, as we know it today, is not always readily visible. Robert Blake was a ghostly figure that often visited his brother, William, after Robert’s untimely death at the age of twenty-five—the same age S. Yarberry was when they began their medical transition. This happenstance of transitions, medical and metaphysical, drove Yarberry through a series of poetic explorations culminating in a collection with one question beating at its heart: what if trans history could be built on abundance, rather than scarcity?
For fans of Jordy Rosenberg’s Confessions of the Fox and Ruth Padel’s Darwin, The Robert Poems provides a lush landscape for Robert to thrive within, offering a new wellspring for trans pasts and a springboard from which to imagine inventive, expansive trans futures.
Biographical Information
S. Yarberry (he/they) is a trans poet and scholar. Their poems have appeared in AGNI, Guernica, Gulf Coast, and Indiana Review, among many others. His first book, A Boy in the City, (Deep Vellum, 2022), was the winner of the Foreword INDIES Prize in Poetry. S. is currently a PhD Candidate in English at Northwestern University where he studies William Blake. Based in Chicago, S. runs the literary magazine Tyger Quarterly and hosts the monthly PO Box Poetry reading series.
Reviews
“What an incredible collection of poems! Once I started, I could not stop reading. S. Yarberry has created a space for a lens on themselves and the world between two Blakes. 'Someone is opening up their arms to engulf what cannot be forgiven. Sorrow happens in the daylight too.' The Robert Poems is great news from a brilliant poet queering the language anew.” —CA Conrad, author of First Light