Twenty Seven Stings is a suite of seventeen poems inspired by the cultural histories and military strategies that have led us into wars throughout history, from sixth century BCE China to Alexander the Great to contemporary American drone warfare. Drawing on these and other well-known conflicts, Twenty Seven Stings engages various aspects of war, including the rules of warfare; the unsung roles of women as pawns or inspirations or lures; the seasons of battle, the landscape, and the lack of food as elemental factors; and the use of poisons and bees as weapons — the title poem refers to the bee-stings required to kill an enemy, according to Pliny’s Natural History. Julie Emerson’s powerfully understated verse reimagines human consciousness, and the ways our psychological needs, our territorial instincts, and our propensity for violence inhabit and animate the state of war. Twenty Seven Stings is illustrated by renowned Vancouver illustrator Roxanna Bikadoroff.