Register the Missing

Synopsis

At the heart of Ansley Moon’s spare, haunting collection of poems is a heartbreaking exploration of the often impossible choices faced by mothers and daughters in a world where more than 50 million Indian girls have been lost to female infanticide, feticide, and gender-based violence.

Interspersed with archival documents and photographs, Moon’s poems move between the voices of a widow forced to relinquish her daughter, an orphaned child navigating identity and inherited loss, and a chorus of unclaimed girls. Moving through historical tragedy and erasure, adoption, citizenship paperwork, and the experience of beginning again in a new city, Register the Missing is a poignant meditation on cultural silence, memory, identity, and the possibility of finding yourself when you thought you were lost.

About the Author

Ansley Moon (born 1982) is the author of How to Bury the Dead. An adoptee herself, she is also a cofounder of the Starlings Collective.

Publisher

Kaya Press, published with Kulhar Books

Publication Date

September 15, 2026

Format

Paperback

Pages

80

Subjects

Poetry · Women & Gender · Indian Literature · Adoption · Identity · Gender-Based Violence

ISBN

9781935717294