The Book of Alice: Poems

Praise for The Book of Alice: Poems

"Dazzling . . . This life-affirming book celebrates resilient women and their legacies." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Dynamic . . . The Book of Alice is a love story, ultimately, between a girl becoming a woman and her grandmother looking back on her earlier life . . . The collection not only preserves her grandmother’s legacy but also embodies it—the poet is her legacy." —Los Angeles Review of Books

"Forde bravely opens up this private world of family histories to explore grief, Black womanhood, religion and the legacy of oppression, as well as language as a bridge to grasp the intangible and make visible the invisible. Be ready to be surprised by the unconventional movement on the page, awed by the music and earnestness of Forde’s words, graciously broken by the violence and lingering wounds and at last, revived with the urgency and jolt of coming alive with hope." —The Rumpus

"Calling The Book of Alice one of the best collections of the twenty-first century would be an understatement. I do not know that I have ever read a better book about grandmothers in my readerly life. Diamond Forde handles frequencies, pauses, and traditions like a conjurer of the highest rank. I'm most taken by the sound of the book. This is as ecstatic as literature gets." —Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy

"This book so inventively excavates and reimagines the archive of a family history, not only scouring the tradition of poetic forms but also recipes and census documents, to recover a powerful story that could easily be forgotten to time. It is an ambitious collection that reaches into the past to call forth a freer future. The Book of Alice seeks to build a world in which the dead are loved and argued for. These poems are also animated by a Black hope, which is thick with sincerity, irreverence, and love. Both structurally innovative and tender, this collection asks us to consider anew the possibilities of what a book, a memory, and a heart can hold." —Judges Citation, James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets

"A fully realized poetry collection . . . The project here is so thoughtfully, powerfully executed and I'm so glad to have read this." —Roxane Gay

"New books arrive all the time—but few feel like an inheritance. . . . Forde transforms her grandmother’s legacy into a formally inventive poetry collection rooted in lineage, faith, and perseverance." —Raleigh Magazine

"Forde’s project is marked by humor and fervor." —Poetry Northwest

"Diamond’s poems are little treasures. Taken individually, they are small whispers into the secret corners of the heart. Taken as a whole, they are a history of the human condition, of womanhood, and of the guilt, the shame, and the voluptuous passion that is born from hard-won truths and a lifetime of learning who you are." —Porter House Review

"A brilliant and unflinching look at faith, family, and the stories we inherit . . . Forde strikes a polished, profound balance of formal innovation and lyrical depth." —INDY Week

“Diamond Forde’s newest poetry collection is as much a restoration as it is a reimagining, a return of Black women to our rightful place as the center of the world and of the Word. These brilliant, breathtaking poems, brimming with intimacies and interrogations, are at once familial and universal. The Book of Alice’s cup runneth over with quiet devastations and resistances, across generations and time. This is a book I’ll keep close to my heart." —Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

"Diamond Forde’s The Book of Alice climbs back through the branches of the family tree, calling down ancestral voices to sing inside poems inspired by Biblical tradition, recipes, a census report, and other formal containers. Forde unfurls family secrets and truths across her pages, dancing past the barriers of bloodline-memory to discover what sweetness or sharpness lives on the other side. Most delightfully, Forde’s dynamic language gallops through this book, irresistible to read out loud: 'batter / buttered, harpooned with jam….& I crop top, too. Coquette / my blubber, my bust.' The Book of Alice invites the reader into a kind of wonderful veneration—of the body, of the family, and of the holy self." —Maria Zoccola, author of Helen of Troy, 1993

"Diamond Forde’s The Book of Alice is a gospel of inheritance in which reckoning, grief, labor, and love converge in a finely-wrought hymn. These poems thrum with vernacular holiness and unflinching music under Forde's pen, transforming domestic ritual into divine speech. The Book of Alice is both sacred text and living archive, a testament to the mothers who endured and the daughters who refuse to let their rich legacy dim." —Airea D. Matthews, author of Bread and Circus

"Diamond Forde is a cartographer mapping the landscape of survival--a country that every Black woman has had to chart. The Book of Alice takes an unflinching look at the  life of a beloved matriarch passing down Her gospel. Forde's ambitious use of persona and form allow us to meditate on doubt, betrayal, self-love, and what it means to be your own savior. These poems are as unsparing as they are merciful, as nostalgic as they are mournful, as smart as they are felt. To live is to know you will be introduced to grief, but also love. And that love can be fashioned into a kiss, a recipe, a balm, or a blade." —Karisma Price, author of I'm Always So Serious

"The Book of Alice is visionary. These poems are as brilliantly made as they are soul stirring, and Forde, using style and craft, explores the past and present. She honors not only her grandmother, Miss Alice, but ours. Writing like this remind us of poetry’s propensity to heal. I’m so excited for people to read these poems. They are a balm for our times." —Crystal Wilkinson, author of Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts