In their new books, Against Heaven and Song of My Softening, Kemi Alabi and Omotara James, offer expansive, erotic, uncontainable poems of praise and words for longing, survival, transformation, magic, and love.
Kemi Alabi is the author of Against Heaven (Graywolf Press, 2022), winner of the Academy of American Poets First Book Award, and coeditor of The Echoing Ida Collection (Feminist Press, 2021). Alabi‘s work appears in The Atlantic, The Nation, Poetry, Boston Review, and has been supported through fellowships from Civitella Ranieri, MacDowell, Tin House, and Pink Door. Born in Wisconsin on a Sunday in July, they now live in Chicago, IL.
Omotara James is an artist, editor and educator, based in NYC. She is the author of Song of My Softening (Alice James Books, 2023). Her work has received support from various organizations, including the African Poetry Book Fund, New York Foundation of the Arts, Café Royal Cultural Foundation, Lambda Literary, and Cave Canem Foundation.
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