About the book

Suite for Hallucinated Voices is a book of revelations for a life that refuses to end. Written as a fully performable musical score, this poetry collection holds a microphone to unspeakable violences from within and without, and to the sweetnesses that at once feed us and render us prey to what we love. CJ Scruton moves beyond deconstructing illusion and reaches toward the task of interpretation—examining the messages she’s received, near and far, deciding which false-speaking idols can be torn down and where her own song belongs in the cacophony. Using music as both metaphor and practice, Suite for Hallucinated Voices walks like a prophet through the desert, parsing the noise of the heavens without shutting the voices out.

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(Please note that this is a preorder. The book will be shipped to you on or before its release date of October 18, 2026. All orders over $60 come with free worldwide shipping. Use the code FREESHIP at checkout!)

Advance praise

“If the love song imagines the beloved as a release from the world’s troubles, then the love poem reenvisions the beloved as a remaking of that same world. In Suite for Hallucinated Voices, CJ Scruton compels us to ‘listen’ both to what’s there and what could be. These are love poems of the highest order. They are symphonic, finding the tender harmonies of ‘moss and herons / cottonmouths and tupelo trees’ amidst apocalyptic crescendos and the percussive frenzy of ‘city-doves.’ Scruton embodies music through the guise of the performer and lingers in time the way only a good melody can, ‘moving so slowly the audience won’t even notice what’s changed right on the surface.’ In these spiraling, formally inventive, and expressive poems, Scruton guides the reader through an ever-shifting muddy field with voices that sometimes waver, protest, confess, reminisce, endear, but always astound. These poems, like all good anthems, demand to be heard.” —Sean Enfield, author of Holy American Burnout!

“Sensuous and spellbinding, Suite for Hallucinated Voices is an exhibition of song and longing. These poems will invite you in and show you all the ways you can imagine desire. You’ll be glad to have glimpsed into the vastness and elegance of Scruton’s world. I know I am.” —Su Cho, author of The Symmetry of Fish

“CJ Scruton is one of the most talented poets and one of the most talented musicians I’ve encountered, and Suite for Hallucinated Voices blends her ability with both mediums to create an astounding symphony of hybrid poetics. These compositions are sharp and visceral, ringing with the lush, blood-letting longing of a ghost note. The speaker’s voice holds an almost otherworldly authority as they guide the reader through landscapes of loss, fear, fable, love, reclamation, and self-reckoning. Suite for Hallucinated Voices is a prism that breaks open and remakes our understanding of the lyric poem.” —Erin Slaughter, author of A Manual for How to Love Us and The Sorrow Festival

Press & reader reviews

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About the author

CJ Scruton is a trans writer from the South who splits their time between Milwaukee and Brooklyn. Her writing has appeared in The Cincinnati Review, Pleiades, and elsewhere, and her sound installations have been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the Midwest. They teach poetry and horror fiction at various levels and are usually spending too much time hunting for ghost stories they haven't yet heard.

Reader & launch photos

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