An Unstable Container by John LaPine

Description

In An Unstable Container, John LaPine explores the provocative dangers and tantalizing pleasures of corporeality across five deeply personal essays. Resonating with a distinct, lyrical Midwestern sensibility, LaPine’s work examines with tenderness the intersections of language, society, and the body in our ongoing construction of the self. As he interrogates blackness, queerness, gender roles, and masculinity, what emerges challenges notions of identity and the self. An Unstable Container establishes John LaPine as an emerging voice vital to contemporary creative nonfiction.

“John LaPine’s An Unstable Container is anything but: these sturdy, well-formed essays peel back the layers of self and lived experience to determine what masculinity is, both physically and as a set of cultural signifiers. Through his lenses as a queer person of color, LaPine documents his shifting relationship with masculinity through the reconstructions of puberty, his queer sexual development, relationships with alcohol and drugs, and even the blood in his veins. An Unstable Container aptly takes as its jumping off point the relationship LaPine has with his physical body, looking outward from embodiment toward being seen and desired as himself. This is a collection of deep vulnerability and masterful restraint. I couldn’t put it down.”—Charles Jensen, author of Splice of Life: A Memoir in 13 Film Genres

 “This book made me ugly cry. At once intimate and frank, beautiful and brilliant, An Unstable Container is unafraid of big feelings and unanswerable questions. Full of tenderness and despair—but ultimately, hope—it is unflinching in its excavation of self, of the world at large. What I mean is, An Unstable Container is a knockout and LaPine is a gift to us all.”—Marisa Crane, author of I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself

“The speaker in this stylish essay cycle covers wide terrain–faith, sobriety, queer coming-of-age, Blackness, intimacy between trusted friends, the meaning of familial connection and inheritance–with a surprising dose of charming humor. Even in his most searching and difficult writing, John LaPine has created the kind of essay narrator you want to go have a late-night adventure with. Each essay is its own deeply-felt world. I loved being along for the ride.”—Krys Malcolm Belc, author of The Natural Mother of the Child

John LaPine is a Black biracial queer poet living & teaching in the Twin Cities. He earned his MA from Northern Michigan University in 2017, and his MFA from University of Minnesota—Twin Cities in 2024.  His work has appeared in: The Rising Phoenix Review, Hot Metal Bridge, The /Temz/ Review, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Under the Gum Tree, Rhythm & Bones,Midwestern Gothic, Underblong, & elsewhere.