Photo by Nabila Wirakusumah
Rhoni Blankenhorn is a Filipina American writer. Her debut, Rooms for the Dead and the Not Yet, won the Trio Award and was published by Trio House Press (2025). She has received scholarships and awards from Sewanee, Saltonstall, Bread Loaf and Storyknife. Her work can be found or is forthcoming in the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Slowdown, Adroit, Narrative, AAWW, Honey Literary, Beloit, Copper Nickel, and elsewhere.
Winner of the 2024 Trio Award, Rooms for the Dead and the Not Yet explores nonlinear landscapes of grief, desire, and identity. This debut poetry collection revolves around love and loss while slipping between exterior and interior with an unflinching gaze, Rooms for the Dead and the Not Yet invites us to embrace the complexity of human experience.
“Rooms for the Dead and the Not Yet exposes what it feels like to be both alive and haunted by one’s aliveness at this particular moment in time.” — Prize Judge Jessica Q. Stark
“These powerful poems reveal how even the most commonplace objects and situations carry menacing histories.” — Paisley Rekdal
“Rooms for the Dead and the Not Yet masterfully hits the exact pitch of grief — at once a hush and a scream punctuated by unexpected laughter. Anyone who has suffered intimate loss will find a home in this unforgettable book.” — Eugenia Leigh
“From the Philippines to the Sonoran desert, from San Francisco to New York City, I imagine the poet and these poems holding hands — finding beloveds elsewhere and anywhere they go and return — all while teeming with attention and discernment.” — Janice Sapigao
Artwork sampled from Ginny Benson // VX Bliss