Living in a country where femininity is so closely tied to the marketing of motherhood and family life, I value the writers who walk into the most painful parts of the womb space. I need their words in my head when I see an ad that sells me children. I need their voices to remind of what lies beneath the silence. I need a world that acknowledges both the beauty and the terror of life inside a female body.

And to acknowledge these—now.

1. Tara Isabel Zambrano’s “Piecing” (TriQuarterly)

2. Ingrid Jendrzejewski’s “The Miscarriage: A Poem” (Mutha Magazine)

3. Chelsea Dingman’s “How All Things Are Managed” (Palette Poetry)

4. Sandeep Pramar’s “An Uncommon Language” (The Poetry Review)

5. Dorothea Lasky’s “Miscarriage” (Poetry)

6. Allíe Marini’s “Two Pounds, Two Ounces” (Obra / Artifact)

7. Chloe Yelena Miller’s “Mammal’s Cries” (Dying Dahlia Review)

8. Linda Dove’s “Fear Is A Walk Through Immovable Trees” (Cease, Cows)

9. Zoë Brigley Thompson’s “Star / Sun / Snow” (Mothers Always Write)

10. Emma Bolden’s “House Is the Word My Doctors Used for My Body” (The National Poetry Review)

11. Laura Turner’s “Missing Hope: A Trio of Miscarriages, and What Happened After” (Catapult)