Poems by Alec Hershman

Release Date: September 15, 2026 (Forthcoming from Iron Oak Editions)

Available for Preorder

In Alec Hershman’s Spine of the Hug, the speaker moves between both intimate and vast landscapes, from hospital corridors to Kentucky caves, from childhood ponds to adult solitude, in voices that are unflinching, vulnerable, and remarkably original. These poems recall the body’s memories through seemingly diametric moments of devotion and abandonment, tracing the invisible architecture of intimacy. They ask what it means to be held and what it costs to let go. “No one knows how the past will end,” and in that uncertainty lies the fierce beauty of this collection. The language behaves like water: still, rushing, clear, or cloudy. 

Hershman’s debut measures the distances among us and the astonishing closeness that can come from isolation. These poems offer stunning explorations of desire, family, and the self’s potential for transformation.

Preorder here.