The book I am currently reading
I’m loving Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor. It’s pulling at my little queer midwestern heartstrings to read magical Paul navigate desire and friendship in his body that he can change into whatever shape or sex he wants.
The book that changed my life
In my freshman year at college I was given a copy of Smoking Lovely by Willie Perdomo, and it was the first time I had seen a book of poetry. Perdomo’s poems helped me make sense of the addiction that lived in my family and me, while also showing me how alive poems could be on the page.
The book I wish I’d written
A Visitation of Spirits is the best novel ever written. That’s not an opinion, that’s a fact. Randall Kenan situates himself perfectly between tradition and experiment, ghost and griot. It’s funny, sexy, familiar, impressive, inventive and haunts long after the last page. This book leaves a stain on you.
The book that influenced my writing
Patricia Smith’s Blood Dazzler teaches me what a book of poetry can look like. In form, heart, focus and humility it’s everything I hope to give to the reader. Smith is the greatest living poet. Every book is better than the last, but Blood Dazzler is where I think her writing begins to enter a new stratosphere.
The book that is most underrated
It’s criminal that more people haven’t read The Kitchen-Dweller’s Testimony by Ladan Osman. Osman is writing poetry no one else could ever have done; a voice wholly original, strange and carnivorous. I’m so excited for her second collection, Exiles of Eden, coming out next year.
The book that changed my mind
When I was a silly young poet I thought I hated poetry that folks labelled experimental. But when I read The Black Automaton by Douglas Kearney I properly shut up and learned. Kearney’s sensibilities are wild and inspired my own wildness to grow. He also helped me access poets such as Harryette Mullen and Evie Shockley, whom I love.
The last book that made me cry
Fatimah Asghar’s If They Come for Us made me a weepy mess one day at the gym. Everyone was so confused, myself included. Not the best book for the cross-trainer, unless you want to cry away the pounds.
The last book that made me laugh
José Olivarez’s Citizen Illegal makes me feel a lot of feelings, but there are many bright moments where I found myself doubled over before I turned the page to joy-weep at another poem.
The book I couldn’t finish
A Little Life took me for ever to finish, I couldn’t take what Hanya Yanagihara was doing to those characters. I kept stopping on the happy parts and imagining the book ended there.
The book I’m ashamed not to have read
Oh, probably Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Please don’t take away my black writer card, I promise I’ll read it soon.
My earliest reading memory
I couldn’t read worth a damn until my magical third grade teacher, Mrs Delavadova, used video game magazines to teach me to do so. I hated books (cause I couldn’t read them lol) but I looooooved video games and it did the trick, I guess.
The book that gives me hope
I think I get the most hope from reading chapbooks/pamphlets by poets early in their careers. They give me hope that poetry will continue to be in great hands.
The book I give as a gift
I give out copies of Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet to people I love and people I think need to be better humans. If there was a church based around that book, I would be a happy lil nun.
The book I’d most like to be remembered for
One I haven’t written yet, but I think Don’t Call Us Dead is pretty tight.
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