📚 Newbies: Sunflowers say hello

GIVE ME MY FLOWERS by Victoria Danielle

👰‍♂️ The RONAREADer is getting married and going on their honeymoon! Instead of dipping into the archives, we’re sharing some of the most exciting new releases (or NEWBIES) we’ve been provided by publishers over the last year or so. We’ll be back to our regular programming in June! See ya soon! 👰‍♂️

Give Me My Flowers by Victoria Danielle

Just like last week’s recommendation, this one is so special! Victoria is a poet who graduated the year after me at The New School. I’ve had the pleasure of hearing her work aloud and I’m beyond thrilled that her debut collection is available for all to read.

“What does a beautiful language of resistance sound like? asks Victoria Danielle’s striking debut…The answer blooms page after page in poems rich with the heat of the Texas sun and the expansive grit of red dirt horizons…” writes poet Kira Tucker.

Danielle’s collection is deeply connected to nature: flowers, of course (notably sunflowers!), but also the red Texan clay, and the scents and sounds of wildlife at home. Writers are always reckoning with how it feels to come home. And yet Danielle’s poems find new ways to explore home, bringing me down a dirt road I’ve never seen while capturing a feeling I know well.

Highlighting the struggles and triumphs of Black women and girls is paramount to Danielle’s practice, and these poems are no exception. In my Instagram review, I likened the writing to a battle cry set to music. The work is lyrical and playful, never taking itself too seriously but seriously exploring forms of liberation. Plus, there are some choice words for Governor Greg Abbott that belong in the Library of Congress.

We’re always recommending poetry at RONAREADS because we are always surprised by how few people read it outside of school. There’s so much beauty to be found in collections like Danielle’s that bring truth and stunning visuals to identity, impressions of home, and celebrations of self.

Victoria’s debut is from indie press Jamii Publishing, so I proudly purchased my copy!

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