BECAUSE

A gripping verse memoir that offers a compassionate and wrenching account of the author's experience of childhood sexual abuse.

Joshua Mensch's devastating debut is a "disturbing, memorably and superbly handled book-length narrative poem" (Steph Burt). It tells the story of Don, the charming, enigmatic director of a youth wilderness camp who befriends, and preys on, the young boys in his care. Unfolding through a series of individual encounters, BECAUSE renders the shifting landscapes of childhood memory with vividness and precision, building a tale that is powerful, complex, and heartbreaking.


Joshua Mensch is a poet and founding editor of the online literary journal B O D Y. His poetry has appeared in several magazines, including Plume, Brick, the Collagist, and Smartish Pace. He lives and works in Prague, Czech Republic.