Family Poetry

Henry has been deaf from an early age. He's intelligent and aware of language, but by age six, he has decided it's not safe to speak to strangers. When the time comes for him to start school, he is labeled "unteachable." Because his family has very little money, his parents and older sister, Molly, feel powerless to help him. Henry's sent to Riverview, a bleak institution where he is misunderstood, underestimated, and harshly treated. Victor, a conscientious objector to World War II, is part of a Civilian Public Service program and arrives at Riverview to serve as an attendant in 1942.

In Orion's Hands is an evocative collection of poems by Miranda Levi that delves deep into the human experience, touching on themes of love, trauma, self-discovery, and the power of the universe. With a raw and unfiltered voice, Levi invites listeners to explore the intimate corners of her heart and mind, weaving a narrative that is both deeply personal and universally relatable.

Her son is left behind in a store by her husband. Again, and again. What is Heidi Esther gonna do to fix her husband this time? She desperately tries to go back to the bliss of ignorance in her perfect suburban marriage. But, with a new bestie, her pastor, and an unexpected coworker at her side, she comes face-to-face with what she’s left behind. And what she discovers about herself and her life leave her awake, breathless, surrounded by Kleenex, and learning from trees.

Finding Light in Philadelphia is a collection of poetry and short stories that explore several existential questions and society issues. The book takes the listener on an exciting journey filled with thought-provoking questions, excitement, deep reflection, and self-evaluation.

A poetry collection about the beautiful and disorienting period of new motherhood, exploring an experience both otherworldly and very, very human.

My latest book is called Looking Back: A Poets Journey and is my sixth poetry book in just a year and a half. It has been a very tearful and emotional time as I wrote down the pages and started looking back at some of my fans favorites and some of the poetry that made the poet you see today. I hope that you enjoy listening to them as I have enjoyed writing them for you all. Words can never express the happiness that I have inside and I want to thank you all for such a wonderful journey so far.

A radiant collection of poetry about womanhood, intimacy, and the body politic that together evokes the arc of an ordinary life. Nabaneeta Dev Sen's rhythmic lines explore the joys and agonies of first love, childbirth, and decay with a restless, tactile imagination, both picking apart and celebrating the rituals that make us human.

What My Hand Say, on one hand, is a bold unapologetic tribute to Black people living their lives in South Carolina. While on other hand, it is a palpable reckoning with the state’s weighted history. In this book, Glenis Redmond’s poems span from the 1800s to the present. The impact of going from poem to poem purposely causes emotional whiplash, as if to say welcome to the volatile place, in which “I/we have always had to live.”

Carole and Jeffery Boston Weatherford’s ancestors are among the founders of Maryland. Their family history there extends more than three hundred years, but as with the genealogical searches of many African Americans with roots in slavery, their family tree can only be traced back five generations before going dark. And so from scraps of history, Carole and Jeffery have conjured the voices of their kin, creating an often painful but ultimately empowering story of who their people were in a breathtaking book that is at once deeply personal yet all too universal.

Senior Paul Wagoner walks into his school with a stolen gun, threatens his girlfriend, Emily Beam, and then takes his own life. Soon after, angry and guilt-ridden Emily is sent to a boarding school in Amherst, Massachusetts, where two quirky fellow students and the spirit of Emily Dickinson offer helping hands. But it is up to Emily Beam to heal her own damaged self, to find the good behind the bad, hope inside the despair, and springtime under the snow.

Life, love, and work intertwine with nature and a unique series of poems, in Tom's revised edition of his successful book of poetry. No matter what the day-to-day challenges are, as life unfolds, Tom shows us - through his poetry - that life is about enjoying what we can in every single moment.

Adnan Zakir loves table tennis. He's also colorblind, left-handed, and has a fondness for the aviation alphabet. He's super close with his sister, Aaliyah, who is a great dancer and memorizer of Quran, and he loves his little toddler brother Rizwan, who only wants to grow up and play table tennis like his big brother. All Adnan dreams of is making it to the Ultimate Table Tennis Championship in Florida, and if he qualifies for the tournament, he knows he will get to spend the Eid holiday with his cousins!

Living in God's Love is a poetic look at some of the most pressing issues affecting our inner-city communities. This book seeks to pull back the curtains and open dialogue to build unity, bridge peace, foster compassion, promote conversations, and assist us in uplifting hearts and bringing empathy into every conversation.

The work of Carl Dennis has won praise for its “integrity, its substance, and its seemingly effortless craft; and for its embodiment of passionate inquiry” (Times Literary Supplement). The title of his new collection, Earthborn, helps to point the way to its two central concerns: how to find meaning, as creatures of the earth, in lives that are short and frail and destined to be forgotten; and how, as stewards of the earth, to address the need to protect our home from ourselves, from the menace to life posed by our own species.

The co-author of Watch Us Rise pens a novel in verse about all the good and bad that comes with middle school, growing up girl, and the strength of family that gets you through it. Beatrice Miller may have a granny’s name (her granny's, to be more specific), but she adores her Mamaw and her mom, who give her every bit of wisdom and love they have. But the summer before seventh grade, Bea wants more than she has, aches for what she can't have, and wonders what the future will bring.

In We Inherit What the Fires Left, award-winning poet William Evans embarks on a powerful new collection that explores the lived experience of race in the American suburbs and what dreams and injuries are passed from generation to generation. Fall under the spell of Evans' boldly intimate, wise, and emotionally candid voice in these urgent, electrifying poems. This eloquent collection explores not only what these inheritances are composed of, but what price the bearer must pay for such legacies, and the costly tolls exacted on both body and spirit.

The poems in Yanyi’s latest book suggest that we enter and exit our old selves like homes. We look through the windows and recognize some former aspect of our lives that is both ours and not ours. We long for what we had even as we recognize that we can no longer live there. Yanyi conjures the beloved both within and without us: the beloved we believe we know, the beloved who is never the person we imagine, and the beloved who threatens to erase us even as we stand before them.

While the poetry you’ll listen to in Ron Wallace’s latest collection speaks of serious topics such as loss and the inescapable progression of time, you’ll also find plenty of humor in this book. His words bring to life his beloved Oklahoma prairies and skies, and his own family members. Wallace’s reflections on childhood, his parents, and, of course, baseball, are heartwarming.

One of the many joys of Christmas comes from the traditions associated with it. Best-selling author Caroline Kennedy drew on her own family's traditions to create this charming collection of favorite stories, poems, and writings that celebrate the holiday spirit.

Each "poem," "story," "yarn," whatever you want to call it, tells a tale of some life-altering experience in Simpson's journey through the cosmos. The places he's ventured. The folks he's met. The stuff he's seen and done.