HABIT

“[Kelan] Nee’s poems are magnificent, hard-earned, and have the resonance of art that intends to last.”—Carl Phillips, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

In his searing sophomore collection, HABIT, Kelan Nee grapples with addiction, recovery, and grief over a parent’s suicide. Drawing on his experiences as a carpenter and furniture maker, he examines masculinity and labor through habits that blur the line between destruction and creation—including writing, woodworking, and relationships. At the heart of the collection is a crown of sonnets, interspersed throughout the volume, riffing on the line “I woke in the morning to the sound of song.” Through repetition and form, HABIT allows the reader to inhabit reoccurring days alongside the speaker, struggling with the pulls of addiction and recovery.

Nee has a stunning ability to distill experience into precise and devastating lyrics: “I used to live / my life in circles / that shrunk in size,” he writes. HABIT looks back to move forward, and through that looking, finds depth, tenderness, angst, and joy.