This is not the sort of book that’s usually recommended for this catalogue. But then, these are not usual times, and this is a most unusual book. It’s a poetic memoir recounting the author’s 90-day experience in a rehab facility as they recover from a decade of addiction. The language is harsh, with nearly every offensive word included. However, if those words weren’t here, the book would not be as powerful as it is. Winters is a 30-year-old writer who lives in Toronto; they identify as queer and sober. Although not recommended for a broad audience, this book might make a critical difference to the life of a teen who’s drawn to alcohol or other addictive substances. Winters writes, “A change…around me / started from holding the scared child within me / gently.”

Caution: Profanity, suicide, alcohol, and drugs.

96 pp., 5.5 × 8"

Source: Association of Book Publishers of BC - BC Books for Schools (2021-2022)

Ash Winters' profile page

“Frank, touching and sometimes wryly humorous … There’s a gritty honesty about those emotions — fear, shame and self-loathing, for a start — but the poems are not raw jottings, for Winters often mirrors inner feelings with revealing metaphors.”

—Toronto Star

"Run Riot: Ninety Poems in Ninety Days is a raw, honest meditation on Winters' struggles with addiction, sobriety, and self-acceptance. Like Carmen Maria Machado's In the Dream House and Roxane Gay's Hunger, Run Riot is a memoir about how one copes with and embodies trauma. Amidst scenes of profound vulnerability are surprising moments of levity that carry the poet and the reader through the darker days."

--Read With Pride, readwithpride.org