Chaos: Standard Edition
what are we / when we look in the mirror? / ourselves? / or the shape / of all the people who left us?
In Chaos, Charity Whan writes directly through the disorientation of transformation. After the ending of a marriage and reckoning with a desire that reshaped her understanding of herself, Whan examines how identity forms, fractures, and reforms. This collection of poetry, prose, and color photography presents as a kind of collage-with generational trauma, loss, regret, sexual identity, and the quiet process of reclamation all layering into a single story.
These fragments of a life move through heartbreak, shame, resilience, and self-acceptance without sensationalizing any part of the story. Instead, they focus on the internal shifts-the moments when a woman realizes she can no longer keep living a version of herself that leaves her unseen.
Firmly rooted in lived experience, Chaos is a collection about honesty, embodiment, and the moments that force us to confront the truth we've avoided. It offers space for anyone who has ever questioned the life expected of them-and wondered who they might be on the other side.
Author: Charity Whan
Publisher: Charity/Whan
Published: 12/12/2025
Pages: 142
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.38lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.30d
ISBN: 9798994114810
About the Author
Whan, Charity: - Charity Whan is a poet, artist, and walking contradiction. Equal parts rebel heart and introspective soul, her work lives in the tension between desire and grief, freedom and consequence. A native Midwesterner now based in Southern California, she writes to make sense of the anarchy she's both run from and run toward. Chaos is her first full-length collection. She is the cohost of the Brittersweet podcast, a bold, bittersweet take on life, love, and the messy middle, and also the writer behind The Wild Beast Substack newsletter.