We are honored to have J Brooke as our first Poetry Shop 5 author to join us during Pride Month, with their striking debut poetry collection I Can Tell You The Version That Will Make You Take My Side released by Driftwood Press this week.
A queer coming of age story, this collection tackles gender, identity, parenting, and body image. In the first half of the book, we're privy to a world of tropical resorts, country clubs, and house servants seen through the careful lens of a child who feels most at home as the hider in hide-and-seek. The poem, “Exit Strategy,” shows us what’s at stake, which opens with the haunting lines, "The very first time I consider ending / my life I am four."
The rules for one generation don't have to extend to the next, and I found the second half of the book liberating as the speaker raises children with power and grace. This section includes poems that explore top surgery, hormones, and body image. One stand out poem—"Why Must My Cousin Come Out?"—examines the societal pressure to share a gendered identity or sexual preference with family.
I hope everyone picks up a copy of I Can Tell You The Version That Will Make You Take My Side. Please read on to learn more about the poets and books that inspire Brooke!
Welcome to The Poetry Shop 5 J Brooke! Tell us about yourself.
I'm a queer / trans / nonbinary writer currently residing in the northeast of the US. I'm as heartbroken by what's happening in our country and world as most of the sentient creatures who are paying any attention at all. I still experience moments of joy around my marriage, being a parent, some of my friends, and a perfect piece of toast.
Who was your "gateway poet," the poet whose first book or poem got you interested in poetry?
Well, as in long ago and far away Charles Bukowski... but most significantly Gabrielle Calvocoressi. I was very VERY young at the time I stumbled into Bukowski and the emphatic plain speak of his work grabbed me and made me think that maybe I could turn into poetry what was banging around day and night (mostly night) in my cacophonous brain.
HOWEVER, in grad school I was turned on to Gabrielle Calvocoressi and they really changed things for me -- conceptually how a story could be told through poetry as in The Last Time I Saw Emilia Earhart, and how explorations of boxing and jazz both as metaphors and literal essence can inhabit a book of poetry as in Apocalyptic Swing.
Which poetry book are you currently reading?
Hide: Poems by Carolina Ebeid. I'm a sucker for unusual form, and this book introduces ones that wash over like a wave at quarter speed. I always value taking in my politics and history from sources beyond journalists. Ebeid's book excavates memory from her Cuban, Arabic, and Palestinian background. This book is like a massive canvas kind of painting -- you both immerse in the whole of it and also spend time with different sections, analyzing. Or maybe that's just me.
Is there a book on the craft of writing that you recommend to poets?
Not really. But the Bird by Bird advice of Anne Lamott is a good way to write a poem. And the sit down in a chair for hours every day and write ("The Getaway Car") technique of Ann Patchett is a decent way to churn out a book of poetry. But answering this question now has me wondering if I only take advice from writers named Anne/Ann...
The book and essay I mention above (Lamott's and Patchett's) both address how we all have writing within us. I'd argue more of us have poems within us than anything else... so help getting them out of our bodies and brains and onto paper is, I think, the greatest service to any artist.
Who is a new voice in poetry that we need to check out–someone with a debut book or recent release?
Adedayo Agarau has a debut this year, The Years of Blood, that I hope gets read in abundance. Agarau writes poems that both appear on the page and when read aloud as whispers. That doesn't make them quiet or small but instead mountainous. His book exposes and describes the most horrendous child abductions and killings in his native Nigeria with such artistry as to make them known to the rest of us... we become witness to a staggering collective trauma that is both historical and current because it is inhumane to turn away and offer less.
Finally, what’s a poetry book that others may not know about but deserves a shout out?
The Holy Ghost Lives In Her Laugh (Kith) by Darius Phelps. I recently learned of this poet when I heard him read from this new book at KGB in NYC and was impressed that the subject of the book, his beloved mother, had never yet read his poetry -- and that he created this (OUTSTANDING) book for her as a gift. The poems within it are each about the poet's mother and simultaneously an ode / love letter to Black women. The work is truly beautiful in that way you won't believe until you experience it.
About J Brooke
J Brooke’s debut poetry book, I Can Tell You The Version That Will Make You Take My Side, has been chosen for Ms. Magazine’s Best Poetry Books of 2026 list, is Driftwood Press’s Editor Choice Winner, and was Ashland Press’s 2025 Richard Snyder Prize Finalist. Brooke’s other honors include Columbia Journal’s 2020 Nonfiction Prize, Pushcart & Best of the Net nominations, Iowa Review’s 2025 Nonfiction Prize Finalist. Their work appears in Electric Lit, McSweeney’s, The Rumpus, Harvard Review, and elsewhere. They are Poetry Editor at Trans Poetics Archive and the Book Reviews Editor at The Rumpus. They can be found at JBrookewrites.com
Books Referenced in this Article.
I Can Tell You The Version That Will Make You Take My Side (Driftwood Press) by J Brooke
Collected works by Charles Bukowski and Gabrielle Calvocoressi
Hide: Poems (Graywolf Press) by Carolina Ebeid
Bird by Bird (Vintage) by Anne Lamott
The Years of Blood (Fordham University Press) by Adedayo Agarau
The Holy Ghost Lives In Her Laugh (Kith) by Darius Phelps (**Only available via Kith**)
Photo Credit: Beatrice Alda
