Atomic I - by Dior J Stephen (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A book of poems about identity, annihilation, and what survives it.

ATOMIC I begins with an atomic blast and spirals outward into an investigation of the lyric "I" where point of view is examined, obliterated, and returned to. Traversing twenty-nine nuclear tests and the landscapes themselves as sites of obliteration and return, Dior Stephens inhabits the perspective of the soldiers and civilian observers who witnessed these experiments in chopped and dispersed lyric sequences that enact memory as flash and sensation. Drawing on the Bhagavad Gita and Count Basie's orchestra as counterforces, Stephens locates a jazz cosmology running underneath the blasts.

Review Quotes

"Dior J. Stephens' CRUEL/CRUEL is a testament to queer interiority, an ode to the Saturn return, and a celebration of language itself."--Cyrée Jarelle Johnson

"Dior J. Stephens exudes a finesse to language and experimentalism as a site for re-imagination . . . Stephens is . . . inventive, playful, and spiritually cognizant to manifest for Black, queer voices toward radiant futures."--Anthony Cody, in praise of CRUEL/CRUEL

About the Author

Dior J. Stephens (they/he) is a Black, queer poet, editor, and educator. They are the author of CRUEL/CRUEL (Nightboat Books, 2023) and ATOMIC I (Nightboat Books, 2027). A Cave Canem, Sewanee, and Lambda Literary fellow, Dior was recently a 2026 Peter Taylor Fellow at the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop. They serve as Co-Editor-in-Chief of Foglifter Journal & Press, a nationally recognized LGBTQ+ literary journal and press. Dior holds a PhD in Philosophy and Creative Writing from the University of Cincinnati (2025), an MFA in Creative Writing from California College of the Arts, and a BA in Theater from Columbia College Chicago. They live in Atlanta, Georgia.