Zdeněk Macháček Sensitive Creatures by Kirsten Reneau; Belle Point Press, 2024 Reviewed by L Mari Harris trampset published Kirsten Reneau’s opening essay “What I Remember” because we recognized a voice that needed to be heard. Now, she has presented us with the gift of a full-length essay collection, entitled Sensitive Creatures, published by Belle Point Press. Sensitive Creatures contains twenty-one essays, each effortlessly weaving together the human world and the natural

by Kirsten Reneau Shot By Ireland I remember useless things, facts that never offer anyone anything. How a giraffe’s heart weighs 25 pounds; that a fire chaser beetle spends its entire life looking for flames; that there are two kinds of lightning—positive and negative. How lightning always becomes before thunder; that is, the crash, the sound of a thousand plates breaking, must come after the light. I remember the moments I almost died, be it drowning, a semi-trailer not che

by Kirsten Reneau James Kern I play with the yolk-stained eggshells my mother leaves broken and empty on the kitchen counter. She tells me she never eats eggs; too many calories. My fingers search for my ribcage, look for a bone to cling to; I don’t realize I am biting the inside of my lip until I taste copper, blood. The shell rolls off the counter and shatters against the floor. Kirsten Reneau is currently working on her MFA in creative nonfiction at the University of New