The Tinder Sonnets

by LoveGrove, Jennifer

• ISBN13: 9781771669665
• ISBN10: 1771669667
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2026-04-07
• Publisher: Book*hug Press

Summary

From acclaimed writer Jennifer LoveGrove comes an electric poetry collection exploring female sexual desire, contemporary dating, misogyny, and middle-age that reflects and embodies our social media-saturated times. Unabashedly confessional and radically vulnerable, The Tinder Sonnets rallies against the long-standing demand that “ women of a certain age” politely accept being rendered non-sexual. Each poem is based on a date, relationship, or contemporary dating insight, and highlights how misogyny impacts the way we connect in the modern world– or don’ t. Juxtaposing folklore and the natural world against the digital sphere of texting and dating apps, this is poetry that defies invisibility and instead confronts and subverts it through a discerning feminist lens. While experimenting with the traditional form of the sonnet, these sonically textured poems are playful and wry, erotic and joyful, all while refusing to shy away from palpable anger, frustration, and disappointment. Centering strength and resilience in the face of a resurgence of misogynistic chauvinism, The Tinder Sonnets is a staunch refusal to recede from view, to cede sexual space, or to be quiet and polite.

Author Biography

JENNIFER LOVEGROVE is the author of four previous books. Her novel Watch How We Walk was longlisted for the Giller Prize, and her poetry collection Beautiful Children with Pet Foxes was longlisted for the Raymond Souster Award. She divides her time between downtown Toronto and Squirrel Creek Retreat in rural Ontario.

Table of Contents

Contents The Root of the Holy Ghost New dating profile Extinction of the passenger pigeon: a cautionary tale So polite we all become ghosts Things Jehovah’ s Witnesses considered rebellious and things considered acceptable Fernaldia pandurata and diabrotica adelpha get symbiotic in Christie Pits Orgasm is not the goal, he said, and I rolled my eyes A brief history of brocade Their plumes sweep the sky, but the sky is stone We are all touch-me-nots now, exploding at the slightest provocation The book of Job as culture of disposability Citrus grandis, lycopene flush, grapefruit diet If the stag does not swim smoothly, then the needlepoint will ruin That time you made me a flow chart of our relationship As a toddler, I choked on an olive pit Stibnite, house of antimony: dating as aversion therapy And I conflate sylvanite with Oasis, upscale aqualounge for the adventurous How to conjure Hakamiah, and other uses for malachite Amber: resting place of departed souls Why I never liked babysitting Winged euonymus, on fire but never burning It’ s always someone else’ s fault Nouns I like in “ Thrust” by Lidia Yuknavitch We all wore these reminders T— helps me stack the firewood