I Sing To Use the Waiting: A Collection of Essays About the Women Singers Who’ve Made Me Who I Am

With a title referencing the first line and title of an Emily Dickinson poem, this debut book is a memoiristic essay collection about the women and nonbinary musicians who have influenced Pace’s life. An essay that describes performances by Chan “Cat Power” Marshall is one of the longest in the book, and Marshall is frequently mentioned throughout other essays. Pace relies on Freudian theories as a lens to view their own experiences as a queer person. They also employ an insightful, somewhat highbrow style of writing for subjects that are not always analyzed thoughtfully in the mainstream, such as Disney’s Pocahontas and Rihanna. The book has an afterword made up of several essays that are only a few paragraphs each. An extensive section of notes, citing all of Pace’s source material, ends the book.