What do we risk by living our most authentic lives? More importantly, what do we gain? In the Middle of a Better World is a queer guide to love and identity, a collection both formally inventive and infused with a bright, shimmering imagination. The speaker of these poems isn’t afraid to dream, to be seen, to speak “the tender language.” Part elegy, part battle cry, this astonishing new collection by poet Grant Chemidlin is unabashedly joyous in its exploration of desire, human connection, and community—those we’re born into and those we build ourselves.