Full discloser: Although we’ve never met, I consider Amanda a friend of the internet variety. We are both part of a close group of writers involved in a couple of forthcoming anthologies. I’m honored that they let me play in their sandbox, and I’m honored to know Amanda at least a little.

Having said all that—this slim volume is a helluva book, a collection of short, often gut-wrenching poems that, according to the Author’s Note, “speak to the experience of being disabled, chronically ill, struggling with mental health issues, and neurodivergent.”

There’s a great deal of pain and sadness in these pages, but also tenacious resilience, hope, and righteous, fuck-you rage. These poems are brief, few more than a page long, but don’t mistake that brevity for a lack of something to say. Amanda has a laser focus and a merciless eye for detail, and if her work makes you uncomfortable, makes you question how you look at the world and the people around you, I think that’s a good thing. That’s how it effected me. The Inadequacy of Words opened my eyes and my heart, and I can’t ask for anything more from a book.

The Inadequacy of Words is available on Amazon here: