autobiographical poetry

"Laurie Boyle Crompton's coming of age in rural Pennsylvania and the New York City are is the 1970s and 1980s was anything but idyllic. . . . Crompton takes you along as she navigates relationships, plays the happy family at church despite discord at home, manages her mother's ambitions and her father's alcoholism, struggles with her self-image and desperately tries to fit in. . . . 'The Demin Diaries' follows Crompton's journey through disordered eating and sexual assault to acceptance and recovery"--Provided by publisher.

"Poet Ren?e 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"--Provided by publisher.

"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"--Provided by publisher.

"Set in New York City in the '90s, Angela Shant?'s poems and stories paint a mosaic of childhood that is shaped by the past and reverberates into the present. As Shant? 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, Shant? 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"--Jacket flap.

"Rex [Ogle] 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 for a better life"--Provided by publisher.

"On January 6, 2021, at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in America, while the U.S. Capitol is under attack, Nicholas Montemarano drives six hundred miles to see his mother, who is hospitalized with COVID pneumonia and in a critical state. For ten days he lives in a hotel minutes from the hospital, alternating between hope and helplessness. This is the story of those ten days"--Provided by publisher.

"In this unique collaboration, four authors lyrically explore where they each come from--literally and metaphorically. Richly layered illustrations connect past and present in this accessible and visually striking look at history, family, and identity"--Provided by publisher.

"A true American epic in verse, Walking Gentry Home tells the story of Alora Young's ancestors, from the unnamed women the historical record has forgotten but Alora brings to life through imagination; to Amy, the first of her foremothers to arrive in Tennessee, buried in an unmarked grave unlike the white man who enslaved her and fathered her child; through Alora's great-grandmother Gentry, unhappily married at fourteen; to her own mother, the teenage beauty queen rejected by her white neighbors; down to Alora in the present day as she leaves childhood behind and becomes a young woman. The lives of these women come together to form a narrative that speaks of generational curses, coming of age, homes and small towns, fleeting loves and lasting consequences, and the brutal and ever-present legacy of slavery in the American South. Each poem is a story-in-verse and together they form an arresting saga. Both heart-wrenching and inspiring, this unique family memoir finds joy and pride where others might only see despair. Informed by archival research, the will and testament of a slaver, formal interviews, family lore, and even a DNA test, Walking Gentry Home gives voice to those most often muted: Black girls and women in America"--.

"Author and poet Nikki Grimes explores the truth of a harrowing childhood in a compelling and moving memoir in verse"--OCLC.

"Michael Rosen and Sir Quentin Blake join forces for a . . . new collection, focusing on migration and displacement. Michael's poems are divided into four: in the first series, he draws on his childhood as part of a first-generation Polish family living in London; in the second, on his perception of the War as a young boy; in the third, on his 'missing' relatives and the Holocaust; and in the fourth, and final, on global experiences of migration. By turns charming, shocking and heart-breaking, this is an anthology with a story to tell and a powerful point to make: 'You can only do something now'"--BTCat.