Grant Chemidlin is the author of What We Lost in the Swamp (Central Avenue Poetry, 2023), a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry. His poems can be found in The Los Angeles Review, Palette Poetry, The Florida Review, Quarterly West, and the Academy of American Poets, among other publications. He lives in Los Angeles with his husband and cat. You can find him on IG @grantcpoetry or at grantchemidlin.com.

"'Each boy / has no shadow, in the firelight, dancing, / untethered.' How gloriously free, this image. How vital, to be this free. And how dangerous, to find such freedom, to continue living, dancing, this way. Formally inventive, full of sensual detail and psychological insight, this book examines homophobia, in particular internalized homophobia, and all the ways out--out of the closet, out of the fear, into joy and sex and tenderness and community and self-knowledge and love. Grant Chemidlin's work makes me grateful all over again for poetry and for queer people." -- Chen Chen, author of Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency

"In the Middle of a Better World carries us from the fearful, lonely dark of the closet out into the bright, brilliant clarity of the self understood. Grant Chemidlin's better world is enriched by conflict, pain, and resolution, by family and friendship, by earnest sex and ecstatic love. It is an adventure in the quotidian surreal. Here we find the beloved picking up and folding a pool of sunlight from the floor, Jesus flying high overhead in a fighter jet, a twink walking into the Republican National Convention. Here we find a poet discovering himself and sharing his discoveries with unabashed generosity, courage, and joy." -- Jaswinder Bolina, author of English as a Second Language and Other Poems

"How often does a poem make you smile? Turn up one corner of your mouth in sweet recognition? Grant Chemidlin's In the Middle of a Better World made me feel as though I was seated beside a friend, holding his hand, holding the truth that is compassion, intimacy, grace. These poems explore shame, and the magic of what waits to be discovered--our true selves--on the other side of its shimmering, transformative fire. I felt such queer kinship with these poems, such gratitude for their charming, delicately wrought steps across the page. 'People are impossible to fully know, ' writes Chemidlin, 'Starry sky we try to trap / in a thimble.' Turn to these poems when you feel the world has lost its mystery. Be reminded there's still so much--sparkling, winking--just on the other side of what we fear and desire most." -- Keetje Kuipers, author of Lonely Women Make Good Lovers

"Grant Chemidlin's poems in In the Middle of a Better World, aren't afraid of authenticity and honesty. They traffic in truth, whether they are the truth of coming out or the truth of love and human connection in a challenging world. Everything is tangled in Chemidlin's poems because the book seems to make a beautiful case for rising out of difficulty, rising in difficulty, and rising before difficulty, as Man Marries Man seems to say: '& when the breeze blows/with the hum of our vows, the strings that kept both/our hidden selves bound, will fall beside our feet. There, /we'll stand. There, we'll be.'" -- Victoria Chang, author of With My Back to the World

"A boldly sumptuous collection, Grant Chemidlin's In the Middle of a Better World never flinches from either ecstasy or uncertainty found in the erotic and mystical spaces where the body and the natural world touch. In striking poems with surprising turns, speakers wrestle with coming out, go to leather bars, or meet at night in the snow where 'the sweet & the scary' is transformed through presences that deepen the search for belonging both in this world and a better one. Bodies morph into books or trees, mingle with moss and hummingbirds and tongues. Chemidlin's poems reclaim this magic in a world that would deny it, especially during a time of great suffering. Men are hopeful in each other's arms or bond in marriage, yet still they remain in the middle of a better world. But Chemidlin's remarkable collection finds its bliss in the striving itself, and the dare that is to imagine that better world." -- Christian Gullette, author of Coachella Elegy

Publisher: Central Avenue Poetry

Pub date: 2026-02-03

Length: 112 pages