Book Review: ‘Confirm Humanity’ by Kim Mannix

Confirm Humanity is a collection of poetry and prose by Kim Mannix, split into three sections. It’s short and packs a punch. 

The first section of the collection, “Disturbing the Peace” does exactly that. It leans more towards prose than poetry in its structure and rhythm. Most of the pieces ring with anger and frustration at the state of the world. It touches on rising racism, climate change, and the increasing influence of tech bros. One look at the news cycle and it’s easy to recognize that this is a timely release. 

But in the anger, there’s also some hope and optimism. Specifically with “Octlantis,” which imagines a utopia for octopus way down in the ocean. It offers a change of pace from the other pieces in this section and is quite beautifully written.

“A Loveliness,” the second section, gets more into the typical poem structure. It’s nostalgic and reflective, but not always in a warm and fuzzy way. It dives into trauma and hurt attached to the author’s experience with womanhood. 

“The first shower after a miscarriage” really highlights this. It’s a very real, sensory heavy poem that takes you right into that shower and the author’s head. The poems that follow echo with the loss and the fear of harm.

But, her poems also slow down and take in her surroundings. It captures moments of quietness, standing on a deck looking at the stars, passing knowledge down to her daughter.

Although they’re just fragments of moments in time, it slowly builds a sense of a complete story, a complete person.

The last section, “Something Like Safety,” focuses a little more on the author’s environment, whether its water, saskatoons, or ant hills. With the author being from Alberta, and grown up in Saskatchewan, many of these things are familiar to Albertan readers. But it all links back to the author’s reflections and inner thoughts. It’s again, nostalgic in a bittersweet way.

That nostalgia is the through-line for the collection, tying the anger, frustration, loss, and fear together. It makes for an impactful and reflective read. 

Confirm Humanity is set to release on October 29.