Killing Kanoko / Wild Grass on the Riverbank

I want to get rid of Kanoko/I want to get rid of filthy little Kanoko/I want to get rid of or kill Kanoko who bites off my nipples.

A landmark dual collection by one of the most important contemporary Japanese poets, in a “generous and beautifully rendered” translation.

Now widely taught as a feminist classic, KILLING KANOKO is a defiantly autobiographical exploration of sexuality, community, and postpartum depression. Featuring some of her most famous poems, Ito writes in a defiantly autobiographical manner: Kanoko is Ito’s oldest child.

WILD GRASS ON THE RIVERBANK won the 2006 Takami Jun Prize, which is awarded each year to an outstanding, innovative book of poetry. Set simultaneously in the California desert and Japan, this collection focuses on migration, nature, and movement. At once grotesque and vertiginous, Itō interweaves mythologies, language, sexuality, and place into a genre-busting narrative of what it is to be a migrant.

“Japan's most prominent feminist poet” – Poetry Foundation