Resilience, hope, grief, and gratitude: these are all things that you will find within the pages of these books of poems and novels in verse.
Poetry | Novels in Verse
And in this powerful collection, we learn that when youth feel safe, seen, nourished, and respected, they can fully express themselves. These creators' lives have been impacted by carceral systems, and because their clubs offer spaces where they are seen, heard, and respected, they have breathed extraordinary life and light into their creations.
Originally published in French as Bagages, Carry On began in a high school in Outremont, Quebec, where author and poet Simon Boulerice conducted creative-writing workshops for young newcomers to Canada. As the students began writing, their poems gave voice to their reflections on leaving family, friends, and countries of origin to make new homes and connections in Canada. Boulerice collected several of the students' poems to create this anthology. Throughout the collection, feelings of sorrow, loss, and anxiety find expression alongside emotions of anticipation, gratitude, and hope as the resilient young writers grapple with questions such as: What is home? Who am I? What does the future hold? Metaphors paint vivid pictures of the students' experiences: feeling the "bite of snow" for the first time, seeking comfort "like steaming hot chocolate" from new people, and embracing a new reality by "slashing my chrysalis." The poems are paired with expressive portraits painted by award-winning and prolific artist Rogé. and award-winning literary translator Susan Ouriou crafted the English text. Carry On, with its soft palette and evocative portraiture, is a tribute to human resilience as it makes space for the voices of newcomers and creates empathy for all those who wonder about their place in the world.
In her most famous spoken-word poem, author of the Pura Belpré-winning novel-in-verse The Poet X, Elizabeth Acevedo embraces all the complexities of Black hair and Afro-Latinidad—the history, pain, pride, and powerful love of that inheritance. Paired with full-color illustrations by artist Andrea Pippins in a format that will appeal to fans of Mahogany L. Browne's Black Girl Magic or Jason Reynolds's For Everyone, this poem can now be read in a vibrant package, making it the ideal gift, treasure, or inspiration for readers of any age.
Discover moody, passionate, and emotional verses that have inspired artists and lyricists for generations. Featuring over one hundred poems by tortured poets, including Emily Brontë, Edgar Allan Poe, Louisa May Alcott, Emily Dickinson, Sappho, William Shakespeare, and Lewis Caroll, this must-have anthology explores themes of love, heartache, revenge, folklore, and peace. Whatever era you're in, there's a poem that will speak to you.
While society often assigns the label 'knucklehead' to kids with attitude problems, this poetry collection by spoken word poet and hip-hop educator Tony Keith Jr. subverts that narrow way of thinking and empathizes with young people who are misunderstood and unheard. There are poems about the power of language to transcend the racist and homophobic constructs of a society prejudging Black boys. There are poems that serve as a salve for a world that inflicts hurt, poems that offer a beacon of hope for the curious and questioning, and poems that transform the way people love Black gay boys and men. This is a journey of self-discovery through history, family, friendship, and falling in love.
Featuring poems, prose, and truisms, When the Stars Wrote Back shines a light on the parts of ourselves we thought were lost in the dark and implores us to trust ourselves and take up the space we deserve. With her trademark honesty, bestselling and award-winning poet Trista Mateer explores the intricacies of love, loss, trauma, heartbreak, and loneliness in this powerful collection.
When Walela is diagnosed at twenty-three with advanced-stage blood cancer, they're suddenly thrust into the unsympathetic world of tubes and pills, doctors who don't use their correct pronouns, and hordes of "well-meaning" but patronizing people offering unsolicited advice as they navigate rocky personal relationships and share their story online. But this experience also deepens their relationship to their ancestors, providing added support from another realm. Walela's diagnosis becomes a catalyst for their self-realization. As they fill out forms in the insurance office in downtown Los Angeles or travel to therapy in wealthier neighborhoods, they begin to understand that cancer is where all forms of their oppression intersect: Disabled. Fat. Black. Queer. Nonbinary.
Rex Ogle's companion to Free Lunch and Punching Bag weaves humor, heartbreak, and hope into life-affirming poems that honor his grandmother's legacy. In his award-winning memoir Free Lunch, Rex Ogle's abuela features as a source of love and support. In this companion-in-verse, Rex captures and celebrates the powerful presence of a woman he could always count on to give him warm hugs and ear kisses, to teach him precious words in Spanish, to bring him to the library where he could take out as many books as he wanted, and to offer safety when darkness closed in. Throughout a coming of age marked by violence and dysfunction, Abuela's red-brick house in Abilene, Texas, offered Rex the possibility of home, and Abuela herself the possibility of a better life. Abuela, Don't Forget Me is a lyrical portrait of the transformative and towering woman who believed in Rex even when he didn't yet know how to believe in himself.
A smash-up of art and text that viscerally captures what it means to not be able to breathe, and how the people and things you love most are actually the oxygen you most need.
Set in New York City in the '90s, Angela Shanté's poems and stories paint a mosaic of childhood that is shaped by the past and reverberates into the present. As Shanté navigates the city through memory, this timeless book illuminates the places where Black girls are nurtured or boxed in, through stories and poems about expectations, exploitation, love, loss, and self-realization. Her poems center on pivotal moments of Black childhood, using footnotes that encourage you to listen to songs, watch movies, and even learn how to play Spades to further contextualize and celebrate Black culture in every aspect of life. But even with Black joy, life ain't no crystal stair. Between fond memories, Shanté also explores the dark corners of childhood by showing us the ways adultification, misogynoir, and sexual assault can impact girlhood. Every piece in this memoir invites you to unpack the past—to find and transcend the expectations and boxes the world puts Black girls in.
Performance poet Sophia Thakur offers a powerful new collection touching on intergenerational relationships, finding your voice, and what it means to be a woman.
Poet Renée Watson looks back at her childhood and urges readers to look forward at their futures with love, understanding, and celebration in this fully illustrated poetry collection.
After her mother died a few years ago, Rowena and her sister, Ariana, drifted into their own corners of the world, each figuring out in their own separate ways how to exist in a world in which their mother is no longer alive. When Ariana disappears-- at night, in the middle of a snowstorm—Row is left to piece together the mystery behind where Ariana went and why. And she comes to realize that she might be part of the reason Ariana is gone.
Nima doesn't feel understood. By her mother, who grew up far away in a different land. By her suburban town, which makes her feel too much like an outsider to fit in and not enough like an outsider to feel like that she belongs somewhere else. At least she has her childhood friend Haitham, with whom she can let her guard down and be herself. Until she doesn't. As the ground is pulled out from under her, Nima must grapple with the phantom of a life not chosen, the name her parents didn't give her at birth: Yasmeen. But that other name, that other girl, might just be more real than Nima knows. And more hungry. And the life Nima has, the one she keeps wishing were someone else's...she might have to fight for it with a fierceness she never knew she had.
When seventeen-year-old Penelope enters her childhood home, the house floods her with painful memories of her mother's opioid addiction that she must confront to mend her fractured past.
Seventeen-year-old Truth uses slam poetry to address her personal struggles with college, relationships, and an unexpected pregnancy, but she never intended for a video of her poem to go viral.
Amal Shahid has always been an artist and a poet. But even in a diverse art school, he's seen as disruptive and unmotivated by a biased system. Then one fateful night, an altercation in a gentrifying neighborhood escalates into tragedy. Suddenly, at just sixteen years old, Amal's bright future is upended: he is convicted of a crime he didn't commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his words, his art.