So We Can Know: Writers of Color on Pregnancy, Loss, Abortion, and Birth
An anthology of nonfiction by writers of color that transcends form, So We Can Know is a record of varied and intricate relationships to pregnancy.
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Aracelis Girmay is a poet and editor from Santa Ana, California. Her books include the black maria, Teeth, Kingdom Animalia, the collage-based picture book changing, changing, and she was the editor of How to Carry Water: Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton. A recipient of numerous grants, awards, and fellowships in support of her work from the Whiting Foundation, the NEA, the Cave Canem Foundation, and others, she is currently the Editor-at-Large of the Blessing the Boats Selections within BOA's American Poets Continuum Series.
"Audre Lorde once told Joy Harjo that she imagined her poems being spoken to a circle of women gathered around a fire. In this book we find that gathering, a gathering of those of us who know our stories belong to each other. And the fire that calls us is the very fire of creation moving through us and changing us all. I recommend this book to everyone. Come for the warmth of communion, stay for the miracle of never being the same."
-Alexis Pauline Gumbs, co-editor of Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Frontlines "So We Can Know is a striking anthology of essays, poetry, and visual art on the often-harrowing experience of pregnancy for women of color. The work as a whole is thick with grief and trauma, but the graceful reflections and breadth of experiences make sticking with it more than worthwhile. This one's not to be missed."
--Publishers Weekly Starred Review "Sometimes, rarely, something we read is a fulcrum of healing. I must thank aracelis girmay and every writer who contributed to So We Can Know. Maraming salamat Terima kasih Thank you, for the courage in these harsh times, when guns have more rights than women, to put words on your experiences. In the spaces between these lines of word medicine, I felt heard, I felt accepted, I felt loved."
--Ibu Robin Lim, Grandmother & Midwife
"Audre Lorde once told Joy Harjo that she imagined her poems being spoken to a circle of women gathered around a fire. In this book we find that gathering, a gathering of those of us who know our stories belong to each other. And the fire that calls us is the very fire of creation moving through us and changing us all. I recommend this book to everyone. Come for the warmth of communion, stay for the miracle of never being the same."
--Alexis Pauline Gumbs, co-editor of Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Frontlines "So We Can Know is a striking anthology of essays, poetry, and visual art on the often-harrowing experience of pregnancy for women of color. The work as a whole is thick with grief and trauma, but the graceful reflections and breadth of experiences make sticking with it more than worthwhile. This one's not to be missed."
--Publishers Weekly Starred Review "Sometimes, rarely, something we read is a fulcrum of healing. I must thank aracelis girmay and every writer who contributed to So We Can Know. Maraming salamat Terima kasih Thank you, for the courage in these harsh times, when guns have more rights than women, to put words on your experiences. In the spaces between these lines of word medicine, I felt heard, I felt accepted, I felt loved."
--Ibu Robin Lim, Grandmother & Midwife
