The month of April is national poetry month and what better way to celebrate than to feature Amanda Lovelace and her fantastic poetry. While some call it Instagram poetry, along with the likes of Rupi Kaur, it is so much more than that. Amanda Lovelace is a poetry writer who has been named GoodReads poet of the year in 2016.

Lovelace has a website which talks about her books, merchandise, and a biography. In the biography it states,

“Having grown up a word-devourer and avid fairy tale lover, it was only natural that Amanda would begin writing books of her own. So she did.”

The lifelong poet & storyteller currently lives in New Jersey with her spouse, their rag-doll cats, and their combined book collection. She is a two-time winner of the Goodreads choice award for best poetry as well as the USA today & publishers weekly bestseller. If you want to know more go check out her website.

          Amanda Lovelace lives in New Jersey with her husband, Cyrus Parker, who is also a poet. Lovelace started writing poetry when she was 11 years old and began experimenting with what to write. When she was 14, she teamed up with a poetry group, but the poetry group stopped meeting after some time. Lovelace kept on writing poems and looking for what worked for her. Lovelace then joined Tumblr and became inspired and convinced by teens to publish her first book “The Princess Saves Herself In This One” on February 14, 2017. She then released her second book “The Witch Doesn’t Burn In This One” on March 6, 2018, and the third book in the series “The Mermaid’s Voice Returns In This One” got released on March 5, 2019.

          The Princess Saves Herself In This One” is about Lovelace’s life, her childhood, teen years, and her early twenties which she divides into four parts in the book. “The Princes”, “The Damsel”, “The Queen”, and “You”. Lovelace shows in this book how much of a strong, independent woman she has become. She said in the beginning of the book “The Princess Saves Herself In This One” that when she was young she experienced child abuse, intimate partner abuse, bullying, sexual assault, self-harm, eating disorders, queer-phobia, menstruation, alcoholism, racism, trauma, death, suicide, grief, cancer, fire, and possibly more.  This book will entangle the reader in a roller-coaster of emotions. From frightened to hope, it will have the reader experience multiple feelings at once. If you’re feeling sad or need to feel intense emotions, this is the book for you because it also gives you hope and relief. What the author wants us to learn about this book is to stand up for ourselves, to be proud of who we are and how we look. And do not rely on a man or person opinion to define who we are. She wants to empower us.

       The book “The Witch Doesn’t Burn In This One” is a follow up of the book “The Princess Saves Herself In This One”. In this book Amanda Lovelace wants the poems to encourage the readers to take control of the way people treat them. That there will always be people(the witches) who will treat you or talk bad about you but even tho you want it to stop or try to fix things people don’t change they will always be there they won’t burn. Amanda Lovelace talks in this book about how people treated her and about how men managed her, how men played with her heart and made her feel bad about herself, how people made her feel insecure about herself.  Lovelace closes the book by saying “today you are the fire and tomorrow you will be the sea, and they’ll have no choice but to hear your siren song.” All her poems have forms of feminism, but “The Witch Doesn’t Burn In This One” includes more because of the keywords which also helps the reader connect with the author.

  In the book, “The Mermaids Voice Returns In This One” is about healing and recovery. Amanda Lovelace also talks about the last poem she wrote in “The Witch Doesn’t Burn In This One,”

“Today you are the fire and tomorrow you will be the sea and they’ll have no choice but to hear your siren song.”

In this book, Amanda Lovelace talks about how people tried to silence her but the mermaid’s voice returns. Lovelace is the mermaid in the book and in this book she’s showing how no one can bring her down or silence her anymore. Also, this book also tries to tell you that even though the past might follow you your whole life, but you have to enjoy every day and not let the past affect your future.

Amanda Lovelace’s books have inspired readers to stand up and believe in themselves. Through her books, she has told her painful life experiences, the tragedies she went through, and all the hope and faith she had while she kept moving forward.

If you want to see more of the author, follow her Instagram @ladybookmad, or you can find her website here