Don't have the words to say it? Get new words!

A reading list + poem combo

Don’t have the words to say it? Get more words!

Don’t know what you want to be anymore? Find new things to become!

Bless you, Flex Mami and this particular interview for breaking me out of an intermittent career crisis to consider a solution I was already familiar with called READ MORE BOOKS.

I love reading and reading is everything to me, but being out of a traditional 9-5 job had me in a 24/7 crisis of “what are we?” and “what comes next?” and “what do I even want to do anymore.” And the 24 hour crisis of “I need money to exist” did not allow for the enjoyment of my normal literary lifeblood. The lack of literary lifeblood started to cut into my writing time and *cue echo chamber of shame* on my identity as a writer.

So, dear reader, if I’m not going to share my supposedly shameful writing with you, I’m going to share my now shameless (and extensive reading list).

First on the list: THE NEWBIES: How to Go Mad Without Losing Your Mind

Black and white book cover featuring a front-facing photo of a Black person's headshot with just eyes and shoulders visible and the face painted in white words. The title "How to go mad without losing your mind” is located in the person’s dramatic kinky straight updo.

The House Behind the Cedars

Book cover of "the house behind the cedars" by charles w. chesnutt featuring an oil-painting style side profile of a well-dressed bi-racial Black woman with an expressionless facial expression

HAVENT FINISHED YET but somehow still want to tattoo on my body

Where They Burn Books, They Also Burn People

A book cover of “where they burn books they also burn people” by Marcos Antonio Hernandez featuring a burning, grinning skill with snakes coming out of the ears and vomiting up flowers that bloom in the skull’s eyes. The title blazes overhead.

The Long List of “I want to start and/or finish these”

• Never Whistle at Night

• The Maid and the Crocodile

• The Truthspoken Heir

• Wild Seed

• Some People Need Killing

• So Let Them Burn

• Chain-Gang All-Stars

• Our Share of Night

• The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

• What We Fed to the Manticore

• Ismatu Gwendolyn’s subscription based blog Threadings on this platform! high high high recommendations

Aaand a small poem by me to hold you over:)

A seed grows crooked under shadow cast by giants. 
Find your light. 
Planted things don't stay small for long