AN EXCERPT FROM THE FATWARD BY THE AUTHOR: I was not born for beige, my loves. And neither were you. My body intends to be seen. My body intends to shine. My fat is not quiet. My fat sparkles. That’s what you’re holding, dear one. You’re holding SparkleFat. You’re holding a loud, unapologetic, intentional book of poetry about my body, about your body, about fat bodies and how they move through the world in every bit of their flash and spark and burst. Some of the poems are painful, some are raucous celebrations, some are reminders and love letters and quiet gifts back to the vessel that has traveled me so gracefully – some are a hymnal of yes, but all of them sparkle. All of them don’t mind if you look – really. They built their own house of intention, and they draped that shit in lime green sequins. All of them intend to be seen. All of them have no more fucks to give about a world that wants them to be quiet.
About the Author
Melissa May is a Youth-In-Crisis worker, body positivity/body justice activist, cat-call devourer, general unraveler of the patriarchy and salty feminist sass-mouth from Oklahoma. She has been a competitive spoken word artist since 2008, and has been both a multi-time Women of the World Poetry Slam finalist as well as the 3rd ranked poet in the world at the Individual Poetry Slam in 2012. She has a degree in Youth Ministry and Bible and Theology that she is aggressively not using, is married to a mad scientist, loves harder than medically recommended, cannot physically stop cursing and smuggles thousands of secrets around like the precious and delicate things that they are. The only secrets she can’t seem to keep are her own. That’s what SparkleFat is. The un-doing of all her shame. The most rare and wild jewel of her heart. Smuggle it around real good. Keep it safe. She’ll owe you big. She knows you are perfect.
