Gospels for the Tongue-Tied - Qetsi'ah Joachim-Baggott
I placed my trust in the hands of a stranger,
and told them that I was moulded from love.
- Curse for the Old Beloved
Through the language of myth, legend, and religion, Qetsiah Joachim-Baggott's Gospels for the Tongue-Tied looks ahead to adulthood through the eyes of an autistic ungendered being womaned before God. Interweaving lived experience and the stories of Cassandra, Lilith, Eurydice, Delilah, and others, Joachim-Baggot blurs the lines between myth and reality, now and antiquity; the implications of expectation are timeless and raw. Gospels for the Tongue-Tied lives within and without the projects of gender and religion in an attempt to carve out a space for the self.
Advance Praise for Gospels for the Tongue-Tied by Qetsi’ah Joachim-Baggot:
Though Gospels for the Tongue-Tied assures its speaker, “your name is not the ocean / you cannot drown in it”, one cannot help but be submerged into the waters of Qetsi’ah Joachim-Baggott’s debut. Beginning in a blood-soaked ritual replete with visceral imagery, Gospels opens up into a tale that reckons with devotion, sexuality, and faith wrought from hardship. Like Jonah within the whale, these poems lead their reader through an unseen world made vibrant with tenderness and unique humor. Indeed, though this collection is Joachim-Baggott’s debut, its journey is most akin to a rebirth.
- MJ Gomez, author of Love Letters from a Burning Planet
In Gospels for the Tongue-Tied, Qetsi’ah Joachim-Baggott innovates through their use of form. Throughout several poems, Joachim-Baggott writes erasures with such freshness that each letter that gets erased leaves scalding heat in its wake; that there is always something waiting under the surface for you to discover.In its variety, GOSPELS escapes the typical feeling of panic, and instead embraces fear as a symptom of truly living. In “BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE,” Joachim-Baggott writes, “WOULD YOU FEED THIS SOUL TO THE DEVIL//WOULD YOU FEED THESE HANDS TO GOD,” and then peels it back to say “WOULD YOU FEED THE DEVIL TO GOD.” Each poem in Gospels is urgent, each poem is wild, but each poem is mournful.
Gospels is written by pens inked with flames, haunting its readers with its brutally beautiful intentionality. From its many religious and literary allusions, to its devastatingly poignant language, to its elusive epigraphs—this is a collection of some of the greatest gospels.
- Aldrin Badiola, editor-in-chief of Artists from Maryland
Release Date: June 12, 2025
ISBN: 978-1-964932-17-0
84 pages
All print orders include the eBook edition
I placed my trust in the hands of a stranger,
and told them that I was moulded from love.
- Curse for the Old Beloved
Through the language of myth, legend, and religion, Qetsiah Joachim-Baggott's Gospels for the Tongue-Tied looks ahead to adulthood through the eyes of an autistic ungendered being womaned before God. Interweaving lived experience and the stories of Cassandra, Lilith, Eurydice, Delilah, and others, Joachim-Baggot blurs the lines between myth and reality, now and antiquity; the implications of expectation are timeless and raw. Gospels for the Tongue-Tied lives within and without the projects of gender and religion in an attempt to carve out a space for the self.
Advance Praise for Gospels for the Tongue-Tied by Qetsi’ah Joachim-Baggot:
Though Gospels for the Tongue-Tied assures its speaker, “your name is not the ocean / you cannot drown in it”, one cannot help but be submerged into the waters of Qetsi’ah Joachim-Baggott’s debut. Beginning in a blood-soaked ritual replete with visceral imagery, Gospels opens up into a tale that reckons with devotion, sexuality, and faith wrought from hardship. Like Jonah within the whale, these poems lead their reader through an unseen world made vibrant with tenderness and unique humor. Indeed, though this collection is Joachim-Baggott’s debut, its journey is most akin to a rebirth.
- MJ Gomez, author of Love Letters from a Burning Planet
In Gospels for the Tongue-Tied, Qetsi’ah Joachim-Baggott innovates through their use of form. Throughout several poems, Joachim-Baggott writes erasures with such freshness that each letter that gets erased leaves scalding heat in its wake; that there is always something waiting under the surface for you to discover.In its variety, GOSPELS escapes the typical feeling of panic, and instead embraces fear as a symptom of truly living. In “BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE,” Joachim-Baggott writes, “WOULD YOU FEED THIS SOUL TO THE DEVIL//WOULD YOU FEED THESE HANDS TO GOD,” and then peels it back to say “WOULD YOU FEED THE DEVIL TO GOD.” Each poem in Gospels is urgent, each poem is wild, but each poem is mournful.
Gospels is written by pens inked with flames, haunting its readers with its brutally beautiful intentionality. From its many religious and literary allusions, to its devastatingly poignant language, to its elusive epigraphs—this is a collection of some of the greatest gospels.
- Aldrin Badiola, editor-in-chief of Artists from Maryland
Release Date: June 12, 2025
ISBN: 978-1-964932-17-0
84 pages
All print orders include the eBook edition
I placed my trust in the hands of a stranger,
and told them that I was moulded from love.
- Curse for the Old Beloved
Through the language of myth, legend, and religion, Qetsiah Joachim-Baggott's Gospels for the Tongue-Tied looks ahead to adulthood through the eyes of an autistic ungendered being womaned before God. Interweaving lived experience and the stories of Cassandra, Lilith, Eurydice, Delilah, and others, Joachim-Baggot blurs the lines between myth and reality, now and antiquity; the implications of expectation are timeless and raw. Gospels for the Tongue-Tied lives within and without the projects of gender and religion in an attempt to carve out a space for the self.
Advance Praise for Gospels for the Tongue-Tied by Qetsi’ah Joachim-Baggot:
Though Gospels for the Tongue-Tied assures its speaker, “your name is not the ocean / you cannot drown in it”, one cannot help but be submerged into the waters of Qetsi’ah Joachim-Baggott’s debut. Beginning in a blood-soaked ritual replete with visceral imagery, Gospels opens up into a tale that reckons with devotion, sexuality, and faith wrought from hardship. Like Jonah within the whale, these poems lead their reader through an unseen world made vibrant with tenderness and unique humor. Indeed, though this collection is Joachim-Baggott’s debut, its journey is most akin to a rebirth.
- MJ Gomez, author of Love Letters from a Burning Planet
In Gospels for the Tongue-Tied, Qetsi’ah Joachim-Baggott innovates through their use of form. Throughout several poems, Joachim-Baggott writes erasures with such freshness that each letter that gets erased leaves scalding heat in its wake; that there is always something waiting under the surface for you to discover.In its variety, GOSPELS escapes the typical feeling of panic, and instead embraces fear as a symptom of truly living. In “BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE,” Joachim-Baggott writes, “WOULD YOU FEED THIS SOUL TO THE DEVIL//WOULD YOU FEED THESE HANDS TO GOD,” and then peels it back to say “WOULD YOU FEED THE DEVIL TO GOD.” Each poem in Gospels is urgent, each poem is wild, but each poem is mournful.
Gospels is written by pens inked with flames, haunting its readers with its brutally beautiful intentionality. From its many religious and literary allusions, to its devastatingly poignant language, to its elusive epigraphs—this is a collection of some of the greatest gospels.
- Aldrin Badiola, editor-in-chief of Artists from Maryland
Release Date: June 12, 2025
ISBN: 978-1-964932-17-0
84 pages
All print orders include the eBook edition