"In their poetry debut, Content Warning: Everything, eye-catching novelist Akwaeke Emezi envisions a self that can't be bent or broken."-Library Journal

"A triumph of selfhood that painstakingly journeys between belief and becoming. Holding tenderness and rage in one breath, the Nigerian-born nonbinary author excavates trauma, divorce and loss without restraint."--New York Times

"Emezi builds identity and family from chosen elements in these poems, describing the commonness of growing into divinity with wit, candor, and clarity."--New York Public Library, Best Books of 2022

"Novelist and memoirist Akwaeke Emezi's debut poetry collection, Content Warning: Everything, centers a bold and spiritfirst perspective on the world. Emezi's poems center the irreducible essence of the self that survives, morphs, and above all, desires."--Electric Lit, Favorite Poetry Collections of 2022

"Outrageously spiritual yet relentlessly self-exposed, the poems recycle biblical materials to articulate deep-seated familial wounds with scarcely an ounce of self-pity. Alternative realities generate raw self-portraits, giving voice to harrowing experiences of domestic and sexual violence. Emezi has combined Maya Angelou's passion and Sylvia Plath's devastating self-inquisition to create an edgy music that frightens and astonishes."--Guardian

"These poems urgently communicate a relatable search for identity and safety and will resonate with a wide range of readers wanting to undertake that search, too. Especially important in presenting another dimension of this gifted writer."--Library Journal

"In Emezi's powerful debut poetry collection, the prolific writer blasts wide open the boundaries of memoir and fantasy. A parallel biblical family becomes a place of safety and belonging; exchanges of power are scrutinised through the lens of trauma; and Emezi's navigation of survival and renewal is by turns playful and devastating."--Financial Times

"There's such emotive and subtle resonance in Emezi's exasperated yet lively tone, disrupting the male gaze. There's gratefulness to themselves--not in an egocentric way, but in a way that implicitly insists they exist, have survived, and now thrive because they can be comfortable in their skin, because they can and will and must."--Colorado Review

"From searing inquisitions of the nature of guilt and sin to radical reimaginings of biblical figures, Emezi operates with the ease of a seasoned poet throughout this visionary book."--BookPage

"Moments of incomparable characterization stand out, like the "velvet child upholstered in incoherent rage," often contrasting with the simple pleasures of Emezi's Igbo culture: "the wet fibers from a ripe palm fruit / flat stones cracking the nut inside." Emezi's lyrics radiate raw vulnerability in their exploration of themes of abuse, trauma, mental wellness, and sexuality."--Booklist

"Award-winning author of Freshwater, PET, The Death of Vivek Oji, and Dear Senthuran, Akwaeke Emezi returns with a poetry collection that sounds electrifying. Emezi is one of our favorite writers today and we are lucky enough to get blessed with a poetry collection f