Charles Kell''s second collection of poems considers the instability of identity through fictional and religious characters while tackling issues of addiction, incarceration, and loss.

In Ishmael Mask, Charles Kell reminds us that identity is precarious. Kell's collection is a collage of the journeys and interior lives of various wanderers?from Ishmael, the son of Hagar, to Melville's Ishmael, and from Pierre of The Ambiguities to Pierre Guyotat. Each poem strips back the mask and beckons us to witness humanity in its barest forms. Captain Ahab's leg, Ishmael's arm, and Pierre's severed head serve as invitations to consider hunger and hope. The inspirations behind these poems?the Bible, Heraclitus, Melville, Guyotat, Toma? ?alamun?are transformed by Kell, conjuring dreamscapes both dazzling and haunting.

Ishmael Mask masterfully allows a glimpse into the human experience of feeling lost?even when right at home, even in our own bodies.

Charles Kell has poetry and fiction in the New Orleans Review, The Saint Ann's Review, Kestrel, Columbia Journal, The Pinch, and elsewhere. He is Assistant Professor of English at Community College of Rhode Island's Flanagan campus and associate editor of The Ocean State Review. He recently completed a PhD at the University of Rhode Island with a dissertation on experimental writing, criminality and transgression in the work of James Baldwin, Rosmarie Waldrop, Joanna Scott and C.D. Wright.