"Bird, Bone, Blood" Book Launch

media release: The Madison community will gather Sunday, October 18, 2026, at 2 p.m. at the Arts and Literature Lab to celebrate Bird, Bone, Blood, the final poetry collection by Rene Livingston-DeTienne, who wrote under the pen name R.B. Simon.

R.B. Simon completed Bird, Bone, Blood, her third published book, just days before her passing. The collection is published by Milk & Cake Press. More than a traditional book launch, the gathering will be a performance-centered celebration of R.B. Simon’s poetry, bringing her words off the page through performances of her work while honoring her life, voice and literary legacy, produced by Loud ‘N UnChained Theater Co’s T. S. Banks.

R.B. described Bird, Bone, Blood as “part memoir, part manifesto”—an examination of “the multiple identities one must reconcile every day to survive what feels unendurable.”

The collection moves from “a past of terror and fear to one of authentic identity in a society that prefers masks,” bearing witness to the realities of growing up mixed-race, queer, fat, disabled and female while centering the strength, resilience and self-redemption required to grow and transform.

Throughout her writing, R.B. explored identity and transformation—“those moments and memories that make us who we are intersectionally and in totality.” She often relied on organic and uncultivated landscapes to explore those ideas and our place in the natural world.

Rene was also the author of The Good Truth and Not Just the Fire. Her work appeared in ALLReview, Strange Horizons, Literary Mama, Obsidian, CALYX and numerous other literary publications.

Books will be available for purchase at the event and are also available online through Milk & Cake Press.