Archives de catégorie : Poetry

THE FREEDOM OF FALLING d’Arriel Vinson

Sold in a 7-publisher auction, debut author and Reese’s Book Club Fellow Arriel Vinson delivers an outstanding novel-in-verse about a girl who falls in love at the roller-skating rink—the only place in the world where she feels whole.

THE FREEDOM OF FALLING
by Arriel Vinson
Putnam/ Penguin Random House, Summer 2025
(via Writers House)

Jaelyn Coleman wants nothing more than to go to WestSide Roll skating rink every weekend like she always does with her best friend Noelle. As Arriel says, like many Black families, her parents—before they got divorced—made roller skating a tradition. But Jaelyn learns that her place of refuge is shutting down by the middle of the summer. Her neighbourhood is being gentrified. Which means she and her best friend might grow apart even more. Trey—the guy she just met at the rink—may become a distant memory. And the place where her family was essentially made will be gone. But, Jaelyn realizes that no one can take away what she loves, and that skating is about keeping community alive.

With searing intelligence, THE FREEDOM OF FALLING explores female friendship, complicated family relationships, and growing into confidence. But at its heart, it’s about learning to let your emotions be free. The freedom to fall in love, maybe with your cute boyfriend, but also with your family who you thought you had lost.

Arriel Vinson is a Reese’s Book Club LitUp Fellow and Midwesterner who writes about being young, Black, and in search of freedom. She earned her MFA in Fiction from Sarah Lawrence College. Her poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared in Shondaland, Kweli Journal, Catapult, The Rumpus, Waxwing, and others. A Tin House YA Scholar, 2020 Walter Grant recipient, and 2019 Kimbilio Fellow, her work has been nominated for Best New Poets 2020, Best of the Net 2019, and a Pushcart Prize.

LitUp by Reese’s Book Club is working to break down systematic barriers in traditional book publishing and provide opportunities for underrepresented women storytellers. The program provides powerful resources for diverse writers to get started and get their books onto our shelves through a writers retreat, a mentorship with Reese’s Book Club alumni authors, and marketing through Reese’s Book Club channels, including spotlights on their Instagram, features in their newsletter, and videos on TikTok.

FOR THERE IS ALWAYS LIGHT d’Amanda Gorman

As the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate and youngest inaugural poet, Gorman has established herself as a dynamic wordsmith with the power to inspire.

FOR THERE IS ALWAYS LIGHT
by Amanda Gorman
Clarkson Potter, November 2024

Here for the first time is a journal that invites you to actively engage with her poetry. Flip from page to page to find quotes that challenge, uplift, and prompt dreams of a bright future, with an occasional poem reprinted in its entirety. With a vibrant, color-driven design, this journal provides readers an opportunity to consider their own influence, their dreams for the future, and the plans for positive change that churn within all of us.

Amanda Gorman is the youngest presidential inaugural poet in US history. She is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of THE HILL WE CLIMB and CALL US WHAT WE CARRY, as well as the children’s picture books CHANGE SINGS and SOMETHING, SOMEDAY. Amanda is a committed advocate for the environment, racial equality, and gender justice.

SOMETHING LIKE HOME d’Andrea Beatriz Arango

From the author of Newbery Honor-winning book Iveliz Explains It All comes this moving novel in verse, in which a lost dog helps a lonely girl find a way home to her family . . . only for them to find family in each other along the way.

SOMETHING LIKE HOME
by Andrea Beatriz Arango
Random House, September 2023
(via Writers House)

Laura Rodriguez has a plan: No matter what the grown-ups say, she will live with her parents again. Can you blame her? It’s tough to make friends as the new kid at school. And while staying at her aunt’s house is okay, it just isn’t the same. But that’s all going to change. Because when Laura finds a puppy, it seems like fate. If she can train the puppy to become a therapy dog, then maybe she’ll be allowed to visit her parents. Maybe the dog will help them get better, and things will finally go back to the way they should. After all, how do you explain to others that you’re technically a foster kid, even when you live with your aunt? Most of all . . . how do you explain that you’re not where you belong, and you just want to go home?

Andrea Beatriz Arango is the Newbery Honor Award-winning author of Iveliz Explains It All. She was born and raised in Puerto Rico and is a former public school teacher with almost a decade of teaching experience.

THIS DAY IS DARK de r.h. Sin

r.h. Sin’s THIS DAY IS DARK is a blistering case study of when red flags are mistaken for passion and love falls in the hands of the wrong people, as explored in his signature poetic voice.

THIS DAY IS DARK
by r.h. Sin
Andrews McMeel, August 2023

From New York Times bestselling author r.h. Sin comes THIS DAY IS DARK, a heartbreakingly relatable collection of poetry and prose that captures some of the darkest moments over an 18-year period. THIS DAY IS DARK is an evocative exploration into what it means and how it feels when forever is temporary and once celebrated love becomes unrecognizable.

r.h. Sin is a New York Times bestselling author of poetry books. He lives in New York with his wife, poet Samantha King Holmes, and two kids.

YOU COULD MAKE THIS PLACE BEAUTIFUL de Maggie Smith

“A sparklingly beautiful memoir-in-vignettes” (Isaac Fitzgerald, New York Times bestselling author) that explores coming of age in your middle age—from the bestselling poet and author of Keep Moving.

YOU COULD MAKE THIS PLACE BEAUTIFUL: A Memoir
by Maggie Smith
Publisher, April 2023
(via David Black Literary)

In her memoir, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself. The book begins with one woman’s personal heartbreak, but its circles widen into a reckoning with contemporary womanhood, traditional gender roles, and the power dynamics that persist even in many progressive homes. With the spirit of self-inquiry and empathy she’s known for, Smith interweaves snapshots of a life with meditations on secrets, anger, forgiveness, and narrative itself. The power of these pieces is cumulative: page after page, they build into a larger interrogation of family, work, and patriarchy.
YOU COULD MAKE THIS PLACE BEAUTIFUL, like the work of Deborah Levy, Rachel Cusk, and Gina Frangello, is an unflinching look at what it means to live and write our own lives. It is a story about a mother’s fierce and constant love for her children, and a woman’s love and regard for herself. Above all, this memoir is “extraordinary” (Ann Patchett) in the way that it reveals how, in the aftermath of loss, we can discover our power and make something new and beautiful.

Maggie Smith is the award-winning author of Good Bones, The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, Lamp of the Body, and the national bestsellers Goldenrod and Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change. A 2011 recipient of a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Smith has also received several Individual Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council, two Academy of American Poets Prizes, a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from the Sustainable Arts Foundation and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She has been widely published, appearing in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Best American Poetry, and more.