“The manuscript for my first poetry collection, God’s Will for Monsters, was rejected 25 times. After taking a long break from submission, I worked with Kenji on reshaping the organization of my poems as a book, in addition to revising individual poems and gathering enthusiasm for another round of submission. Not only does Kenji have a keen eye for craft and poetics, he made significant connections to the sociopolitical, to world mythologies, to critical race theory, gender and queer theory, and postcolonialism in my poems, which made our conversations about my work expansive and exciting. Kenji’s line edits and feedback were intuitive, incisive and challenging; and I felt like he truly understood the aesthetics and politics of my work, which gave me another push to submit the book one more time. Shortly thereafter, my book was picked up my publisher, and won a regional poetry prize, then the American Book Award a year later.”

— Rachelle Cruz, author of God’s Will for Monsters