“Kira Lynne Allen’s first full length book of poetry is so gorgeous, so rich in honesty, truth, pain and healing, beauty and rage and humanity, that it is going to change lives. It gives permission, and that means that it gives life. It gives off heat and fresh air. It exposes, encourages, challenges, delights. I found it thrilling.” —Anne Lamott, New York Times bestselling author of Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace and Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
“Kira Lynne Allen works from the strong tradition of Audre Lorde, Sonia Sanchez and Janice Mirikitani. Write This Second tells of an America so many don’t want to see, refuse to see, an America where abuse and racism go hand in hand, where the traumas of family history merge with the traumas of the history of people of color in this country. But this astonishing book is also a work of/ hope and recovery, of a survivor who has healed herself and passed on a new legacy to her daughters and to her readers. I can’t recall the last poetry book that made me cry. Write This Second made me cry. Read it for its witnessing and for its healing. For the triumph of this poet as witness and seer.” — David Mura, author of Turning Japanese: Memoirs of a Sansei
“This is one of the most courageous books I’ve read. With Write This Second Kira Allen brings forth a survivor’s howl. There are no easy words here. Allen journeys us through two decades of abuse, devastation, and silence to her triumphant rebirth. Allen is a Phoenix rising from the ashes of trauma. These words are her wings. Let’s celebrate her flight.” —Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie, author of Karma’s Footsteps