A thrilling, spiritual audit of a woman raised within a hyper-legalistic Christian culture, Purification in Queens embodies Kristalyn Gill’s mission to reclaim the evangelical lexicon and introduce this vocabulary back into present-day vernacular. The collection illuminates and empathizes with society’s communal strain to deconstruct Western femininity and religious conviction. Across the pages, Gill contends with doubt, the realities of death, and the value of transparency, leaving readers with more questions than musings.
Brazen, sincere, and refreshing, Purification in Queens welcomes the fracturing of faith as an invitation to reconstruct and develop a hope-filled, tenacious pursuit of a God who Sees. At times morbidly curious and strikingly comedic, Gill lays out her daring ambition to challenge the Christian Church’s ecclesiastical hierarchy and its collective fall from grace.
In her scintillating poetry collection, Kristalyn Gill strips away the priestly garments of Catholicism to expose the emptiness within. At once a confession and an indictment, Purification in Queens pulls religious skeletons out of the closet to make room for tender hearts that want to know God. With incisive clarity, Kristalyn investigates her understanding of family, faith, and womanhood, and explores how God comes to us in the gritty, uncomfortable parts of life. This collection is for anyone who wants God in a real way, who is tired of empty words, and who is on the quest for spiritual substance.
Elizabeth Moore, co-author of Liturgies for Hope
Kristalyn Gill’s Purification in Queens successfully grapples with the intricacies of religiosity and girlhood. It is a celebration of reclaiming femininity and faith. It is a transparent and honest manifesto of the complexities of living in a body. It is an ongoing game of Rock, Paper, Scissors when it comes to processing a nonlinear relationship with God. Gill’s imagery throughout is so striking, you won’t be able to put her book down.
Maya Williams, poet laureate of Portland, Maine, 2021-24
Poetry experts, lovers of words, and anyone who can appreciate a good rhyme scheme will find themselves sucked into the cathartic, cleansing cry that is Purification in Queens. Gill’s words are the good kind of pain. They’re a balm for the soul to those who have found both hurt and healing in faith-she has masterfully woven a story about absurd femininity, daughterhood, and even death. You will be undone by this book, and you’ll come back to it again and again.
Hannah Oh, assistant shopping editor at Cosmopolitan
Kristalyn’s writing is cerebral yet grounded, unflinching but compassionate, clever but truthful. Purification in Queens delves into the hypocrisy of false religion, the wrestling match of real faith, the experience of womanhood, and the wounds of childhood with artfully crafted poems that are both bracing and comforting in their honesty. This book is refreshing for the heart and the mind.
Sarah Jane Souther, founder of Unfortunately, I Love You
Like its title promises, Purification in Queens dexterously and casually knits the sacred with the profane and the spiritual with the mundane. Gill’s emotionally charged poems paint God, parenthood, death, city buses, and the human body with the same vivid brush-and they’re better for it.
Chloe Sarbib, television writer, director, and editor
This poetry book is a companion for anyone who has danced themselves out of certainty into the open air of curiosity. Kristalyn Gill scrutinizes high-control ideologies and the expectations for women within those worlds (“I am a refugee within my ribs”). She shares the wonder of exploring things that were once off-limits (“They didn’t tell us how kissing/ is just whispering I’m not going anywhere/ into someone else’s wounds) and delights in the comfort of newly gained freedom (“Start to bury myself in curiosity,/ to cover myself with a question mark/ and call it home”). Gill says, “I believe in the weight of an unread book in your palm,” and I believe that this is a book you should read after you’ve enjoyed its beautiful weight in your palm.
Joann Renee Boswell, author of Meta-Verse!: It’s going to be interesting to see how yesterday goes
Kristalyn Gill
is a professional human and physical storyteller. Raised in Statesville, North Carolina, she graduated from East Carolina University’s Honors College with dual degrees in Dance Performance (BFA) and Interpersonal Communication (BS). She is the author of the internationally distributed, The Shape of You (Free Lines Press, 2021), as well as The Breakup Club: A Collection of Mishaps and Falling Aparts (2019). A recipient of the 2023 Queens Arts Fund New Work Grant, she has been celebrated for ushering “shape and movement viscerally across each page in the throes of grief and triumph of girlhood” (Maya Williams, Portland Poet Laureate). Her writings have been featured in Dancegeist, Dead Dads Club, Junk Drawer Magazine as well as Off-Broadway performances such as While We Wait (Candace Brown) and B_TTERLAND (Bo Park). She was also a recipient of the 2021 Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts Poetry Fellowship and a featured slam poet at the Bowery Poetry Club, Inspired Word NYC, and Port Veritas. As a movement artist, Kristalyn has traveled across the globe with credits including Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Fire Island Dance Festival, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and Feud (FX). Kristalyn currently lives in New York City where she serves as the founder and facilitator of Dive & Dine, a community forum inviting strangers to share a meal and exchange curiosities about culture, faith, and identity.