Books to Peel
Peel the author and tap a cover to peel the book
Hiromi Itō
“I speak from the womb and the grave at the same time.”
Peel the Author
Hiromi Itō is a Japanese poet, essayist, and translator known for her fierce, lyrical, and corporeal voice. Born in 1955, she first gained recognition in Japan for her bold poetry addressing sexuality, motherhood, and death—topics still taboo in many literary circles. She later moved to Southern California, where her work began to incorporate migration, aging, and spiritual displacement.
Her writing does not merely describe the body—it is the body. A body that gives birth, that bleeds, that remembers. A body that mourns generations while boiling rice for the living. She blends the domestic with the divine, the grotesque with the holy. Her voice is wild and intimate, like someone reciting a prayer with food still in her mouth.
Voice
“I am my mother. I am the daughter. I am the mountain. I am the one who bathes the dead.”
Itō speaks from multiple mouths at once. Her poems are not narratives—they are possessions. They hold the reader between languages, between borders, between identities, and do not let go.
Tone
incantatory · raw · poetic · ancestral
Mood
embodied · mythic · tender · unruly
Peel the layers
Voice
“I am my mother. I am the daughter. I am the mountain. I am the one who bathes the dead.”
Itō speaks from multiple mouths at once. Her poems are not narratives—they are possessions. They hold the reader between languages, between borders, between identities, and do not let go.
Tone
incantatory · raw · poetic · ancestral
Mood
embodied · mythic · tender · unruly
Peel the the layers
Author's Peel
Peel the author and tap a cover to peel the book
Books to Peel
Peel the author and tap a cover to peel the book
Hiromi Itō
“I speak from the womb and the grave at the same time.”
Peel the Author
Hiromi Itō is a Japanese poet, essayist, and translator known for her fierce, lyrical, and corporeal voice. Born in 1955, she first gained recognition in Japan for her bold poetry addressing sexuality, motherhood, and death—topics still taboo in many literary circles. She later moved to Southern California, where her work began to incorporate migration, aging, and spiritual displacement.
Her writing does not merely describe the body—it is the body. A body that gives birth, that bleeds, that remembers. A body that mourns generations while boiling rice for the living. She blends the domestic with the divine, the grotesque with the holy. Her voice is wild and intimate, like someone reciting a prayer with food still in her mouth.
Voice
“I am my mother. I am the daughter. I am the mountain. I am the one who bathes the dead.”
Itō speaks from multiple mouths at once. Her poems are not narratives—they are possessions. They hold the reader between languages, between borders, between identities, and do not let go.
Tone
incantatory · raw · poetic · ancestral
Mood
embodied · mythic · tender · unruly
Peel the layers
Voice
“I am my mother. I am the daughter. I am the mountain. I am the one who bathes the dead.”
Itō speaks from multiple mouths at once. Her poems are not narratives—they are possessions. They hold the reader between languages, between borders, between identities, and do not let go.
Tone
incantatory · raw · poetic · ancestral
Mood
embodied · mythic · tender · unruly
Peel the the layers
Author's Peel
Peel the author and tap a cover to peel the book


