Announcing Queen of Non Sequiturs: Poetry at the Edge of Connection

I’m thrilled—and honestly a little in awe—to finally share Queen of Non Sequiturs with the world.

Ebook cover of Nik Nicholson’s latest collection of poetry.

This book has been years in the making. Though I never stopped writing (poetry is my constant), it still surprises me how long it’s been since I last released a collection. In that time, my work has evolved—sometimes circling the same themes from different angles, other times leaping into new territory altogether.

The title, inspired by a dear friend who used to call me the Queen of Non Sequitur, is more than an inside joke. It captures the way my mind works—jumping from idea to idea, sometimes in ways that make perfect sense to me (and other neurodivergent artists), even if the connections aren’t obvious to everyone else. The poems in this collection are snapshots of that process: some wild and scattered, some unexpectedly cohesive, all honest.

Queen of Non Sequiturs is, at its heart, an exploration of experiment and evolution. I play with a range of forms and techniques—not just for their own sake, but as ways to see the world from new angles. I’m especially proud to feature Kwansaba, a seven-line poetic form with deep roots in my hometown of East St. Louis, Illinois. This form—born in Black cultural expression—lets me celebrate tradition even as I push into new creative territory. Alongside these, you’ll find free verse, paragraph-style poems, and works that refuse to fit any single mold.

If you flip through, you’ll notice poems like “Ink” (three versions!) and “Queen of Non Sequitur” (four takes). The “Ink” poems dig into our tangled relationship with language in the digital age—how autocorrect and autofill change what it means to write, and why there’s still something sacred in putting pen to paper. The “Queen” poems are pure thought process: nonlinear, sometimes messy, but always true to how I experience and shape the world.

This collection is curated like a vinyl record—the poems chosen not just for their individual power, but for how they fit together, echoing and riffing off each other. Some appear in multiple versions, like different takes of the same song, each capturing a unique mood or moment in my development as a poet.

Throughout, my voice is rooted in Black American vernacular, weaving the rhythms and language of my community into a larger narrative about growth, connection, and the strange loneliness of our digital lives. I hope these poems resonate with anyone who’s ever felt out of sync, who craves real connection, or who believes that rules exist to be both respected and reimagined.

Queen of Non Sequiturs is available now on Kindle eBook and paperback. If you pick it up, I’d love to hear what you think—leave a review, send me a note, or share it with someone who could use a little poetry right now.

Thank you for being here, for reading, and for welcoming my words back into the world.

Nik Nicholson