Personalize Your Library Experience

When you choose your preferred branches and age groups, the site will automatically filter the content to match your selections.

Select Your Branches

Select Your Age Groups

This information will be saved as a cookie, and cannot be connected to a library login or transferred between computers

icon of stars; highlighting that you can open the select favorite branch overlay Save & Close
Return to All Blog Posts
Back to Top

National Poetry Month: Dr. Taylor Byas

About Blog Post Apr 19, 2024 by SCLSNJ Staff
National Poetry Month: Dr. Taylor Byas   Created by Bob Helmbrecht, collection development librarian Our National Poetry Month poet for today is Dr. Taylor Byas. Byas's debut collection, "I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times," was published in 2023 by Soft Skull Press. From the publisher's description: "Inspired by 'The Wiz,' this debut, full-length poetry collection celebrates South Side Chicago and a Black woman's quest for self-discovery--one that pulls her away from the safety of home and into her power." The collection has received many great reviews, and was the winner of the 2023 Maya Angelou Book Award and the 2023 Chicago Review of Books Award in Poetry. The Black Caucus of the American Library Association also named it a 2024 Honor Book for Best Poetry. Poet Nate Marshall said of the collection: "So many of the greatest poets in the American tradition have been Chicago Black women and this debut collection is an announcement that one more has joined that proud tradition. Byas's work unfolds with tender attention to all sides of life in the Black metropolis. From mulberry trees to daisy dukes to candy ladies to liquor stores, this work sings of the city that raised me in an authentic way, with a careful formal attention befitting the lineage of Gwendolyn Brooks. This is a work to cherish." You can find some samples of Byas's poetry on the author's website. Read a few, then check out "I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times" today!
chat loading...