Hardly Creatures

“Exciting, sometimes shocking…[an] astonishing first book.”—New York Times

“Communal and collaborative. The reader’s experience activates the poems, rendering each encounter unique and alive…. A rebellion against the robotic pressures of capitalism.”—The Rumpus

“Innovative…. an impressive titan of formalism and radical inclusion.”—Electric Literature, A Best Poetry Collection of 2023

“Brilliant and innovative. . . . shepherds the reader through the radiance and mess of the disability community.” —Chicago Review of Books, 100 Notable Debuts by Trans, Nonbinary and Gender Nonforming Authors in 2025

“The joyfully inventive debut honors the disabled community…. Colgate’s generous and perceptive poems make an impact.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“Expands the limits of the poetic form…. From poems that mimic sensory rooms and scrambled abecedarians to inventive plays on social media posts and culture allusions, Hardly Creatures shows readers the limitless possibilities poetry has to reimagine and reach new heights.” —Chicago Review of Books

“Wide-ranging in tone and topic, these poems lead by example, showing us how the world could be, how a book could be…. More than poetry, it is possibility. Colgate shows us the potential of art that not only allows for us, but actively welcomes us into its fold.”—North American Review

‘Remember that you are meant to be here. / You must allow yourself to exist / in whatever way you have arrived to the space’ This was an invitation I received upon entering Rob Macaisa Colgate’s Hardly Creatures, a collection unlike any I have ever encountered before. Part primer, part activated art space, part personal/community inventory, part lyric collaboration with mental illness—this book activates new zones between disability studies and poetry, allowing readers spaces for rest, recognition, and reimagination inside its dazzling and varied forms. An extraordinary document in care, mutual aid, and access that positions the self (all selves) as existing inside a network of interdependence.” —Claudia Rankine, author of Citizen

“Stunning and tender . . . full of vulnerability and humor and lyrical play.”—Jane Wong, author of Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City

“Brilliant . . . I felt my entire world shift, soften, begin to glow.”—Chen Chen, author of Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency