In Mix-Mix, Dani Putney excavates facets of their mixed-race heritage using reformulated text from the “Asian Romance Guide to Marriage by Correspondence” to consider their relationships with their Filipina mother & late white father, problematizing—but also attempting to understand—the circumstances that led to their parents’ marriage across two continents via mail correspondence. In addition, the collection puts queerness & non-binary identity into conversation with heritage, invocations of pop-culture icons, reflections on the speaker’s daddy issues, & general explorations of queer sexuality. In Mix-Mix Putney seems to ask, “Why were we born? How do we live with the circumstances of our birth, both historically & culturally?”

Released April 8, 2025, by Baobab Press—get your copy from Bookshop, your favorite local independent bookstore (such as The Radical Cat & Thistle & Nightshade in Reno, NV), or Amazon.