Aftercare by Cathrina Jakeman
 
Aftercare follows the bite—after the body and the self have been tested, after survival is no longer a choice and becomes retaliation. Through lyric prose and experimental poems, Cathrina Jakeman examines survival as an inevitable burden, probing at blurred memories and hidden wounds. The work rejects easy nostalgia and linear healing, lingering instead in the aftermath of intimacy, girlhood, and inheritance with a voice that is angry, self-aware, and relentlessly alive. Aftercare is an offering for those who have been told they are too sensitive, too difficult, too much.

Each copy of this chapbook is handcrafted and bound by Shadow and Sax, making every edition a small physical work of care.

About the Author
 
Cathrina Jakeman is a writer and student pursuing her English Literature and Creative Writing degree in Colorado. She is a staff writer for The Lycian Magazine, with work published in The Afterpast Review. Her debut chapbook, Why I Bite, was published by Bottlecap Press in 2025 and is available now on their website.