Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Book of Alice: Poems

The Book of Alice: Poems

Forde, Diamond

Paperback

General Poetry

Publisher Price: $18.99

ISBN10: 1668078406
ISBN13: 9781668078402
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Published: Jan 20 2026
Pages: 96
Weight: 0.30
Height: 0.20 Width: 5.80 Depth: 8.60
Language: English
WINNER OF THE 2025 JAMES LAUGHLIN AWARD FROM THE ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS

A stunning new collection exploring lineage and the legacy of survival as seen through the life of the poet's grandmother Alice--a Black woman born in the Jim Crow South--using the King James Bible as a narrative framework.

Alice / a god-song, swings still in the high / branch of our throats. I miss her, wonder / what she plants in heaven's mulch.

When her grandmother died, poet Diamond Forde inherited a well-worn family Bible to remember her by. In The Book of Alice, she retells the story of her grandmother's life through the framework of the only poetry Alice knew: the King James Bible. A Black woman born in the Jim Crow South, Alice joined the tide of the Great Migration when she made her exodus to New York City. She married, divorced, and raised eight children, all while struggling to define herself in an America that looks frighteningly like our own. Using found forms like recipes, a family tree, and a US Census Report alongside imagined psalms and scriptures, Diamond draws bold parallels between biblical narratives and the lived experiences of those often relegated to the margins of history. The result is both a heartfelt elegy and a new sacred text.

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