In A Little Feral, Maria Giesbrecht (@theguelphpoet) delivers a debut collection that navigates faith, family, and personal resurrection through a voice at once wild, intimate, and quietly rebellious. Written in the aftermath of leaving a conservative Mennonite upbringing, these poems chart a parallel journey of breaking away-- from father, from God, from the confines of obedience. Giesbrecht's language is lyrical and unflinching, a cadence that moves between tenderness and defiance, weaving ancestral memory with moments of stark revelation. A Little Feral asks readers to reimagine where holiness might be found-- in the fractures of family, in the undoing of inherited faith, and even in the loneliness of a world shaped by patriarchy and exile.
Review Quotes
"Maria's poems are tender and devastating, unveiling a rich, crackling world that will haunt you in the best way." - Lyndsay Rush, USA Today bestselling author of A Bit Much
"Maria's collection of poems is amazingly vulnerable in a way that will deeply impact any reader. She captures pain and beauty in such a way that I found myself wanting to commit to memory so many lines and paragraphs in her poems. It's truly a book I will not forget." - Hannah Rosenberg, USA Today bestselling author of Same
"Maria Giesbrecht is a mesmerising storyteller, she weaves words with gentle intensity. The poems here fill a silence that has long surfaced between people and places. The poems will provoke you to revisit your own experiences, finding both the hurt and light in them." -Theresa Lola, author of Ceremony for the Nameless
About the poet
Maria Giesbrecht is a Canadian poet whose work explores her Mexican and Mennonite roots. Her writing has appeared in The Literary Review of Canada, Grain, ONLY POEMS, San Pedro River Review, and elsewhere. She is the winner of the 2025 Jack McCarthy Book Prize, a Best of Net nominee, and the founder of Gather, an international writing community that connects poets worldwide. Born in Durango, Mexico, she now lives in Toronto, Canada with her fiancée.
