Kinds of Grace by Jennifer Maritza McCauley (forthcoming)
Kinds of Grace is a poetry collection that explores the complicated facets of Blackness and Afro-Latinidad, the trials and triumphs of mental health issues and the search for love, home and self-ownership. The collection shows the power of healing racial wounds, the arc of discovering womanhood and the grace that we must show ourselves as we journey on our road to self-discovery.
Cover Artist Credit: Evie Shaffer
Artwork inside: Maritza Gonzalez Cintron and Carol Ward
Jennifer Maritza McCauley is the author of SCAR ON/SCAR OFF (Stalking Horse Press), WHEN TRYING TO RETURN HOME (Counterpoint Press) and KINDS OF GRACE (Flowersong Press). She is the recipient of fellowships from National Endowment for the Arts, Kimbilio, CantoMundo, and Sundress Academy for the Arts. Her poetry collection SCAR ON/SCAR OFF received an Independent Publishers Book Award and her short story collection WHEN TRYING TO RETURN HOME, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, a New York Public Library Book of the Day, one of the Best Books of the Month by Kirkus Reviews, Ms. Magazine, and The Southern Book Review and Today called it one of the “Best Books to Read in 2023.” She has received an MFA from Florida International University and a PhD from the University of Missouri. She is presently an assistant professor at the University of Houston-Clear Lake.
The sweeping lyricism of these poems sing like arias through the many woes and wonders of womanhood, race, cultures, and homelands. With resolute emotional authority, Kinds of Grace inspires us to not merely exist, but to thrive with dignity and virtue.
-Richard Blanco, Presidential Inaugural Poet, author of Homeland of My Body
Jennifer Maritza McCauley’s new book of poems Kinds of Grace is “huge, hot and shining.” This collection is a fearless exploration of that which we cannot always name and that which has been buried and silenced for far too long. Using lyrical language, fresh alliteration and anaphora McCauley explores mental health, ancestral memory and what it means to reconnect to and reclaim “Mami’s island” as her own. These poems move like tidal waves at times fast and full other times gentle and soft. As we journey through rivers, oceans, graveyards and meadows we see McCauley trying to make sense of her family’s past in order to feel rooted in the present as a “panther-soft” Black woman who is learning how to love (herself and others) and be loved. This poignant and timely collection is an affirmation of modern day Black Latina womanhood in all its complexity, humanity and wholeness. This is a book that sings and sighs, offers us grace and light and a field of flowers that reminds us we are still “Alive alive/Alive.”
— Jasminne Mendez, author of Aniana Del Mar Jumps In and CITY WITHOUT ALTAR
”These days, I don’t read poetry to cry or feel helpless. I read it to feel what it feels, to live it deeply and holler its lines like some proud Caribbean woman. That’s why I’ll read anything Jennifer Maritza McCauley writes. Her poems will as soon hug you loose as shake you tight, have you popping and wincing in beats, singing all kinds of love before morning’s arrived.”
—Anjanette Delgado, Editor, Home in Florida: Latinx Writers and the Literature of Uprootedness
McCauley skillfully incorporates an economy of language with evocative imagery and inspiring storytelling. An empowered, engaging voice. Masterful code-switching: honoring Black and Boricua cultures. Never apologizing. McCauley is always comfortable in protest and song. McCauley is a must-read poet and author; a rising star in the literary world!
-Jose Hernandez Diaz, author of “The Fire Eater” and “Bad Mexican, Bad American.”