SOFTENING is Olivia Braley’s debut chapbook. This series of linked vignettes explore a girl’s coming-of-age as she seeks refuge within a body that is simultaneously being hardened by the world she inhabits. In its consideration of gender and girlhood, the collection seeks to interrogate what is remembered, what can’t be forgotten, and how memory manifests in the physical body. “Olivia Braley’s SOFTENING balances trauma and nostalgia on a razor’s edge as it sifts through memory to uncover the wisdom of the body. These echoing vignettes catalogue the power of narrative to alternately unmake and reclaim safety within a body that is remade under the gaze of others. This tender, incisive debut is a hall of mirrors, a marvel of shimmering language and insight that I will carry in my bones. – Kate Finegan, Editor-in-Chief of Longleaf Review”