Metropolitan Library System

This stunning story of the author's struggle to break free of her strict Rastafarian upbringing ruled by a father whose rigid beliefs, rage and paranoia led to violence shows how found her own power and provides a unique glimpse into a rarefied world we know little about.

Do your readers know who the first published African-American poet is? Phillis Wheatley, a slave, published her most famous book of poetry in 1773, while traveling in England. Readers will learn about her life, and the lives of seven other amazing poets. Each short biography ends with a brief timeline of the person's life and achievements.

"Life, like a poem, is a series of choices." In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself in lyrical vignettes that shine, hard and clear as jewels. The book begins with one woman's personal, particular heartbreak, but its circles widen into a reckoning with contemporary womanhood, traditional gender roles, and the power dynamics that persist...

An NPR Best Book of the Year

A 2020 International Latino Book Award Finalist

An Entertainment Weekly, The Millions, and LitHub Most Anticipated Book of the Year 

This unforgettable memoir from a prize-winning poet about growing up undocumented in the United States recounts the sorrows and joys of a family torn apart by draconian policies and chronicles one young man’s attempt

...

Joy Harjo, the first Native American to be appointed Poet Laureate of the United States, details her journey to becoming a poet. Born in Oklahoma, the end place of the Trail of Tears, Harjo grew up learning to dodge an abusive stepfather by finding shelter in her imagination, a deep spiritual life, and connection with the natural world. Narrating the complexities of betrayal and love, grounded in tribal myth and ancestry, music and poetry, this is...

United States Poet Laureate and winner of the 2022 Academy of American Poets Leadership Award Joy Harjo examines the power of words and how poetry summons us toward justice and healing

"Her enduring message—that writing can be redemptive—resonates: 'To write is to make a mark in the world, to assert "I am."' The result is a rousing testament to the power of storytelling."—Publishers Weekly
...

"Scandal and pathos abound" (The New Yorker) in this riveting account of the mother and daughter who brought Emily Dickinson's genius to light.

Longlisted for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography • Finalist for the Plutarch Award

Despite Emily Dickinson's renown, the story of the two women most responsible for her initial posthumous publication—Mabel Loomis Todd and her daughter, Millicent

...

“A lush Narnia tale for grownups”: The first comprehensive biography of the rebel thinker who married C. S. Lewis (Megan Marshall, Pulitzer Prize winner).
 
If Joy Davidman is known at all, it’s as the wife of C. S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia. On her own, she was a poet and radical, a contributor to the communist journal New Masses, and an active member of New...

A buoyant, breathtaking poem from Juan Felipe Herrera — brilliantly illustrated by Caldecott Honoree Lauren Castillo — speaks to every dreaming heart. Now in a Spanish-language edition!
¿ALGUNA VEZ has imaginado quién serás cuando crezcas?
Cuando Juan Felipe Herrera era niño, recogió flores, ayudó a su mamá a alimentar a los pollitos, durmió bajo el cielo centelleante y aprendió a decirles adiós a sus

...

Turner Publishing proudly presents the first of three new literary works by Sandra Hochman, author of Walking Papers. When asked in 1976 by a reporter from People Magazine if her first two novels were autobiographical, Sandra Hochman replied, "My real life is much more fabulous than the books. One day I plan to write about it-men, Paris and women's liberation. It will probably be called Unreal Life." Hochman first met Pulitzer Prize-winning American...