“A short and sharp book that combines intellectual density, lyrical integrity and factuality that is almost cruel in its precision. A fascinating and thought-provoking read.”

— Maria Stepanova, International Booker Prize shortlisted author of IN MEMORY OF MEMORY

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“In Alton Melvar M. Dapanas’s IN THE NAME OF THE BODY: LYRIC ESSAYS, multiple disciplines—theory, cultural anthropology, autobiography, and lyric essay—dance together elegantly and pointedly, forming a sequential meditation on gender and sexuality, embodied in spare and unsentimental vignettes of memory. Dapanas punctures the painfully retrograde folie a deux of the clueless communities that cling to repressive ideals. That they do so in writing that is intellectually acute and graceful, using formal play, is a cause for celebration.”

— David Lazar, author of OCCASIONAL DESIRE: ESSAYS and editor of ESSAYING THE ESSAY and TRUTH IN NONFICTION