Editorial Review For Unmuted
Unmuted is a poetry collection that refuses to stay
polite. David Andrew Tittle writes about family, identity, race, and survival
without offering easy endings. The poems move between memory, protest, and
self-reflection. They ask uncomfortable questions and do not apologize for
doing so. They show how silence can wound and how speaking out can heal.
The strength of this collection is in its voice. Tittle is blunt when he
needs to be, tender when he chooses to be, and unapologetically loud when the
moment calls for it. The poems hold together as a record of a life lived
between cultures, between acceptance and rejection, between silence and sound.
The work does not try to play nice, and that is its biggest accomplishment.
This book sits within a long tradition of poetry that mixes the personal
with the political. Readers may think of James Baldwin’s call to confront
history or Audre Lorde’s insistence that difference must be recognized. Yet
Tittle’s mix of bilingual rhythms, family history, and social critique gives it
a distinct place in contemporary American poetry.
The collection will connect with readers who know the push and pull of
identity, who have felt unseen, or who have grown tired of quiet compliance. It
will also reach those who want poetry that sounds like real conversation, with
a few choice words your grandma might not approve of.
The bottom line: Unmuted is not here to
whisper. It is here to speak, shout, and sometimes curse. If you want poems
that carry both fight and care, this book will give you that. And if you were
expecting soft-spoken verses about sunsets, well, maybe pick something else.
This one bites back.