#TPQ5: A$iahMae

How Much We Must Have Looked Like Stars to Stars – Alysia Harris

Alysia Harris was the first poet my mother ever told me to check out, because she saw her Brave New Voices performance and said “”that’s something that I could see you doing.”” In her words I found I my poetry voice, and in her book I found a world where being vulnerable was savior. I needed that.

Bronx Masquerade – Nikki Grimes

Though not technically a poetry book, this book birthed the poet in me. It came out in 2002 when I was in 4th grade and a teacher gifted it to me, telling me I didn’t have to wait to become a poet because I WAS a poet, right there.

Sarah Dessen

I couldn’t pick a favorite book from her, she was the YA writer of my teens and to this day her books make my heart so happy.

Toni Morrison

I started reading her books in middle school, and I didn’t really understand how much she would mean to me until I got older and saw myself so clearly in her words. THEE Greatest American Writer, no cap.

Plastic Parjos – Melissa Lozada-Oliva

Melissa is one of the best voices of my generation, and all of her work strikes me in a much to relatable way. Anything she touches is gold.


AsiahMae is a queer southern poet, pluviophile, and Scorpio cohabiting in Charleston, SC. She is the author of “oxygen” (2016) and co-creator of now defunct online mag For The Scribes. Esthetician by day and cinephile by night, when she’s not writing poetry on the back of receipts she tweets wandering thoughts @_asiahmae.

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