The poems in The Off-Season are populated with things—'90s TV shows, mixtapes, crosstown buses, winter beaches—signifiers that trace a trajectory from girlhood to adulthood and bring to the surface feelings and desires that ordinarily stay hidden. We witness the strangeness of modern life, relive our own adolescent awkwardness and listen in on conversations with dead poets, TV characters, family members and intimates. With humor, fierceness and generosity, The Off-Season grapples with the question of how to be in the world.

JEN LEVITT received her MFA from NYU. Her poems have appeared in Boston Review, DIAGRAM, Sixth Finch, Tin House, and elsewhere. She lives in New York City and teaches high school students.