Yrsa Daley-Ward's Blog, page 9

"I feel as though I cannot look away, as hard as I try. Your essence is overwhelming. You draw me in,..."

“I feel as though I cannot look away, as hard as I try. Your essence is overwhelming. You draw me in, right in. You sink me and I drown and drown in you until I am quite sure that I have disappeared. Until I feel as though I might never have existed. There are things about you that make me absolutely crazy. I want to know everything that you are thinking. Even when I know where you are physically, it is never even nearly enough. Where is it exactly that you travel to in your head? I should like to have the grid reference, the co-ordinates. If I could, I would burrow deeply into your mind and stay there, inhabiting it completely, forever. I want to man all of the traffic that gets lost up there and guide it so that it all goes the right way. I want to build large roads right through into the deepest valleys of your mind. Wide lanes, so you never get stuck far away for too long. Smooth tarmac and clear signs, all of them leading around and around and then back to me.”

- excerpt from ‘On Snakes’ On Snakes and Other Stories, Yrsa Daley-Ward 3:AM Press

Infinite blessings my love. Your writing awakens truth. Looking forward to the book release

How beautiful…and coming from you! A close friend introduced me to your work about a month ago. I think it’s stunning.

"Your brother shuffles in his seat looking uncomfortable when you say, “what if someone were to do..."

“Your brother shuffles in his seat looking uncomfortable when you say, “what if someone were to do that to me,” and mumbles, “I’d fuck them up. You know I’d fuck them up.”

He cannot look you in the eye today.

It’s the one time in twenty something years that you don’t instinctively feel the need to make him feel better about himself

or lament the plight of mixed up black boys from broken homes

or consider the flawed system

it’s the one time in twenty something years

that he’s more the culprit

much less the victim

so you clear your throat (purposefully)

and say,“That’s inexcusable and one corner I wont stand in to fight for you

so you’d better talk. Now.”

So you sit down to talk

and he cries, mostly.”

- Yrsa Daley-Ward: On hearing he hit his girlfriend. 

Your poetry is giving me life this night, by God my dear your words are precious and inspiring!

Thank-you, thank-you! x So happy to connect with you.

"she says she cries over me on the train to and from work and one day it will be better but it isn’t..."

“she says she cries over me on the train to and from work and one day it will be better but it isn’t better now. she is just like my mother, but alive. knows how to love

quietly, completely.

something about the way black women hold your heart. you can leave them all you like but you cant stay gone.”

- Yrsa Daley-Ward: the situation 

"If in the end her words were nothingif in the end his hands were airif the thought of her rips.If..."

“If in the end her words were nothing

if in the end his hands were air

if the thought of her rips.

If he stopped phoning when you stopped fucking

if she hangs on you and

doesn’t call again

if he asks you to pay back the money.

if.

If she still isn’t sorry

if.”

- Yrsa Daley-Ward: breathe 

wocinsolidarity:Attanya: #WeNeedDiverseBooks because I love...

wocinsolidarity:

Attanya: #WeNeedDiverseBooks because I love science fiction and fantasy books, but I’m tired of authors treating dragons and robots and magic as more plausible than black and brown characters

Jennifer: #WeNeedDiverseBooks because… when I was 13 a white girl told me it was selfishthat all of the protagonists in my stories were Latina because she “just can’t relate to nonwhite characters.” She made me feel guilty for writing about people like me. 

Aiesha: #WeNeedDiverseBooks because…Black Girls are more than sidekicks or “sassy, ghetto friend”

Facts and Figures About Race/Ethnicity in YA and Children’s Lit:

88% of the books on the 2013 Publisher’s Weekly YA Bestsellers were about white protagonists
93% of the authors on the 2013 Publisher’s Weekly YA Bestsellers were white authors
85% of the books on the 2014 Young Adult Library Services Association’s Best Fiction for Young Adults list were about white protagonists 
90% of the authors on the 2014 Young Adult Library Services Association’s Best Fiction for Young Adults list were white authors
91% of the authors on the 2013 New York Times’s Bestseller Lists for YA and Children’s Lit were white authors. 
According to the 2012 Cooperative Children’s Book Center, only 3.3% of books were about African-American protagonists; only 2.1% were about Asian and Pacific Islander protagonists; only 1.5% were about Latinx protagonists; and only 0.6% were about Native American protagonists. That means over 90% of children’s books surveyed were about white protagonists.

#WENEEDDIVERSEBOOKS

Posting this a little late, but followers please take the time out to check out this post explaining the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign and more events to come over the next few days! 

"i am beyond overjoyed to share a co-release with the wildly incredible yrsa daley ward, who is of..."

“i am beyond overjoyed to share a co-release with the wildly incredible yrsa daley ward, who is of nigerian and jamaican descent and uk based. and the startling beautiful writer tapiwa mugabe, who is of zimbabwean descent and is also based in the uk. we will all be releasing collections of poetry on tuesday, june 17th :))) in doing so we are hoping to open, broaden, and nurture the support and community of writers in the african diaspora/ people of color diaspora :))) we can’t wait to begin the celebration of us, through poetry with all of you :)))”

- xoxo nayyirah (via nayyirahwaheed)

Words by YrsaMusic by Axel

Words by Yrsa

Music by Axel

Photo