Critical Commentary
“Through exploring Francis’s work, [poet and professor Julie] Carr said there are three key themes that she’s discovered running through their poetry.
‘One of those is a really strong emphasis on the sonic; on sound and sound play. And then a sort of theoretical or intellectual strain runs through their work. And then a third strain, which is a really personal and vulnerable honesty,’ said Carr. ‘All three are present in their work in different ways at different times. I find that range to be really fascinating and powerful.’”
–Quotation from poet and professor Julie Carr, author of 100 Notes on Violence (Omnidawn Press, 2023) via CU Independent article, “Denver poet Aerik Francis looks to light up CU’s Queer Literature and Performance Festival” by Lauren Hill on March 17, 2023
"Francis’s BODYELECTRONIC so beautifully troubles and complicates the body’s relationship with other bodies and other devices… Aerik Francis challenges us in witty and devastating ways to consider how we, like poetry and our bodies, are already joined with the digital and electronic, much as Franny Choi does in Soft Science."
—Review of poetry chapbook BODYELECTRONIC featured in Prairie Schooner Winter 2022 Issue Vol. 96 No. 4 by poet Kelly Weber, author of You Bury the Birds in My Pelvis (Omnidawn Press, 2023)
"'This is the future' is what I kept saying to myself while reading Aerik Francis’ MISEDUCATION. This is a radical contemporary love letter to the queer BIPOC lineage that reminds us of the importance of community, the expansiveness of family, and of course, the power of both resilience and resistance in taking back what is rightfully ours. Francis’ speaker carries the greatest internal strength through this high confrontation and abolition of irrelevant canonical standards, such as 'objective beauty.' I’ve been waiting for this collection. I’m in awe of what Francis does to language, through its decolonization, as well as its infinite innovation. Through textures and hybridity, their voice has simultaneously redefined what a collection can do, while paying homage to the critical voices who came before them. Francis is an artist who will keep pushing poetry anew—there are absolutely no limitations—this is an important book."
—poet Dorothy Chan, author of BABE (Diode Editions, 2021)
"[I]t was not until Miseducation, Aerik Francis’s second chapbook, that I found this critique [of the academe] taken up in poetry. With a keen combination of intellect and heart, Francis deploys the tools of poetry–juxtaposition, sonic-sense, metaphor, space on the page–to paint a Kafka-esque world where pain surges through the current of words. At its best, Francis’s poetry, even when probing betrayal and dysfunction, is musical, playful, and makes strong use of structure."
—Review of poetry chapbook MISEDUCATION featured in RHINO Poetry Volume 6 No. 9: October, 2023 by poet Emily Pérez, author of What Flies Want (University of Iowa Press, 2022)
