I Hate Parties

I hate Parties is a book of 50 poems that dance (awkwardly) between queer and anxious space. Social anxiety runs through this book of poetry like a current. Recorded on deliberately shaky media, this collection offers the B-side of grwoing up queer, autistic and nonbinary. from Scruff dates to mix tapes, jes battis cruises (and crashes) through wild feelings and minor catastrophes. Dipping readers into a world of missed connections, social disasters and life as a queer party that constantly surprises, battis uses a light touch and neurodiverse prosody as they chronicle middle-grade queerness and a kind of meandering surreality. From difficult desires, panic attacks and environmental sebsitivites, Battis weaves nineties metaphors with current discussions of neurodiversity and trans rights in Canada as they ruminate between past and present like a cat refusing to settle. I Hate parties guides us through all the best and worst parties of our lives- to the secret room beyond, where being awkward is the one and only dress code.