"I.S. Jones has certainly created, crafted, and formed something breathtaking with Bloodmercy. Jones takes on the idea of grace, at whose feet we kneel and at whose side we wish to heel, and does so with lyric intensity and precision. Since I am feeling particularly blasphemous, I reckon that somewhere a religious text is missing a psalm. Find it here in Bloodmercy." – Nicole Sealey, author of The Ferguson Report: An Erasure and Ordinary Beast
"I feel like I’ve been waiting for this book my whole life. Carnal, startling, absolutely extraordinary, Bloodmercy awakens the soul to newly terrifying and tender depths. Here is a collection that evidences a rare genius—a nearly miraculous convergence of instinct, vision, and skill. Utterly electrifying, intimate and sweeping, Bloodmercy will live on my shelf among the books of my most sacred personal canon. Reading these poems, I marvel, I flinch, I hold my breath. I.S. Jones has given us a book for the ages." —Gabrielle Bates, author of Judas Goat
"Marking the stunning debut of a bold voice in poetry, I.S.Jones' Bloodmercy sings like a choir and ages like a wine. This re-telling of Cain and Abel as a pair of sisters, braiding the story of the first mercy and the first murder under the watchful eye of a father whose anger is as terrible and unpredictable as any god. Lush, dynamic and endlessly inventive, Bloodmercy is a biblical debut; not merely for its themes, but the scale of its imagination." – Julian Randall, author of Refuse
OFFICIAL PUBLICATION DATE SEPTEMBER 9, 2025
