Cover image for Bite Back: Poems by Blayne Waterloo, featuring a werewolf and a femme figure interacting in a cemetery under Spanish moss as the moon shines down.

BITE BACK: POEMS

Fecund with eerie imagery, gore, and angst, Bite Back offers a messy look at returning home to oneself when queer people, mentally ill people, and folks with uteruses feel powerless and hunted.

out october 9, 2025

"Bite Back is a feral journey of raw rebirth and acceptance, acting as a fiery salve for aching souls.

This is must-read poetry for those sick of backing down."

— Ahlissa Eichorn, Haunted by Deadlines

"A potent mix of tenderness and rage, loss and reclamation, Bite Back finds catharsis in the gore of allowing yourself to become the monstrous thing. At the same time, Waterloo’s poems transcend pain and sorrow in order to unearth truths that feel deeply human in this stirring collection."

— Claire C. Holland, author of I Am Not Your Final Girl

I’m a horror writer and editor who uses horror imagery to talk about mental illness, queerness, being nonbinary, trauma, and politics. My background is in journalism and entertainment writing.

I write to be understood in a world determined to misunderstand me and people like me.

published poetry