The Letter All Your Friends Have Written You
by Caits Meissner & Tishon
Description
Caits Meissner and Tishon are two emerging writers living in New York City. The Letter All Your Friends Have Written You, this vibrant collection of poems, marks their first collaborative book. Though the writers speak different tongues, they’ve managed to put together a collection that’s resonant and harmonious, mingling classic themes of love and war with pointed ruminations on mixtapes and growing up with The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
by Caits Meissner
Under headphones, Mavis Staples crawls into the hurting parts.
She is awkward, but persistent, squeezing her round maternal body
into the tiny cracks. Shimmies up the pipe of my heart.
Stomps her feet against the wound. Rolls her eyes.
Says, toughen up, mama, this ain’t the end of the story, yet.
She holds a kettle beneath my tear ducts.
Shakes her head and throws it on the stove.
Beans and rice, again.
She pulls out a chair from the table and wipes her hands
on her apron, how you feel, child, she asks.
by Tishon
As a teenager,
I wanted desperately
to be in the NBA.
Why?
So I could be famous enough to
get a book deal,
leave basketball forever,
and
embark on a career
as a writer.
Well
Basketball is hard.
Caits Meissner reads The Gift (After Yusef Komunyakaa’s Safe Subjects)
What people are saying
“Caits Meissner and Tishon have built an anthem to the present in strong, perceptive poems that remind us, in the face of all the news to the contrary, that we are alive, well, alert, and loving.”
—Roger Mitchell, author of Delicate Bait and Half/Mask
“After reading The Letter All Your Friends Have Written You I want to raise the window and scream I love you”
—muMs, award winning NYC poet
About the Authors
Caits Meissner, winner of the OneWorld Poetry Contest, attended the 2008 inaugural Pan-African Literary Forum in Accra, Ghana where she studied under Pulitzer Prize winner Yusef Komunyakaa and other luminaries from the literary African diaspora. In addition to her own self-released work, she has been published in various literary journals. She is also an arts educator and designer.
Tishon is a designer, writer and poet who has read his work at Bowery Poetry Club, LouderARTS Reading Series, La Mama and other venues in New York and New Jersey. In August 2011, Tishon founded Well&Often. He is also a founding member of BBOXradio.com. Tishon lives in Brooklyn.
Design Notes
Cover stock: Mohawk Kraft 80 Vellum
Paper stock: Light Pink Mohawk Via Smooth
Bells & Whistles: Embossed lettering on cover
Typefaces: Epic by Neil Summerour
Photography: Grover Watts