If there’s anyone we want to hear more from, it’s American poet Amanda Gorman. In January, the United States’ national youth poet laureate captured the world’s attention with a message of hope by performing her poem, The Hill We Climb, at Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration. The following month, she was on the cover of TIME, being interviewed by Michelle Obama. This week, she’s Stylist’s cover star. Today, the 23-year-old releases her first poetry collection, Call Us What We Carry (Vintage) – and it’s just as compelling as you’d expect.
Throughout the 70 poems, Gorman intricately articulates her thoughts on everything from the value of human connection and touch in Cut, to the grief we all need to process in The Shallow, right through to issues at the forefront of our minds, like the degrading state of the environment in Earth Eyes. “Gorman has a way of expressing the mundane, complex, rational and irrational thoughts that have been circulating in our collective consciousness for the past year with such brevity,” says Stylist Loves writer Kiran Meeda. “If you found her inauguration poem uplifting, consider this poetry for the soul, making you reflect on how you really feel. In classic Gorman style though, it’s laced with the underlying message that the strength of the human character lies in us simply carrying on.” Onwards and upwards, indeed. £14.99; bookshop.org