Kelly Grace Thomas released her much anticipated second poetry collection this week, Future Tense (Alice James Books), an elegantly crafted memoir-in-verse about the speaker's journey to motherhood as she's losing her own mother to uterine cancer. For anyone who has experienced infertility or the loss of a parent to cancer—this collection chronicles both in achingly beautiful verse.
Each section of Future Tense recounts a year—starting with a new marriage, a desire to have children, and a longing to be closer to loved ones. As time passes, that dream becomes more complex. The speaker's mother moves across the country in anticipation of grandchildren, but receives a shocking diagnosis instead, detailed in the poem "The Uterus Hangs on Every Wall":
...the PET scan whispers tumor and the / doctors say Stage Four and my mom doesn't want pity and / begs me don't tell and I wonder if all bodies are a secret...
Thomas deftly captures the voices around her—friends, family, acquaintances—who try to be helpful, to understand, but fall painfully short of that, as in the poem "Unsolicited,"
Wait—you've been trying for how long? Girl, you just need to relax.
Take a vacation. Hawaii But don't drink. Eat clean. Eat jams. Eat soy. Eat dirt.
Everything organic. Buy that natural crystal deodorant. What's more important—pit stains or a baby?
In addition to Future Tense, Thomas is the author of Boat Burned (YesYes Books). She's a sought-after poetry teacher, coach and mentor. Her popular workshop series, Inside the Manuscript, features poets with new books—past guests include Maria Giesbrecht (A Little Feral), Jillian Stacia (Set the Bone), and Caitlin Conlon (Burning the Ghost Light).
Future Tense is now available for purchase on The Poetry Shop! Thomas starts her book tour this week—visit her website to view tour dates on the east and west coast.
We are thrilled to have Kelly Grace Thomas with us for a Poetry Shop Five interview to hear more about literary influences, poets that have inspired her, and new voices to check out.
Welcome, Kelly Grace Thomas, to the Poetry Shop Five! We’re in awe of your new book, Future Tense. Tell our readers a little bit about yourself and your new book.
Hi! I’m Kelly Grace Thomas, a poet, writer, poetry coach, and ocean-obsessed Aries. My second collection, Future Tense just came out with Alice James Books. Reckoning with infertility, adoption, and love under pressure, Future Tense is a searing memoir-in-verse about fighting to become a mother while losing my own. Though a poetry collection, it unfolds with the momentum of a novel, chronicling the three years I spent battling infertility as my mother was dying of Stage IV cancer. At its heart is a race against time: my desperate attempt to fulfill my mother’s final wish of becoming a grandmother before it’s too late.
Who was your "gateway poet," the poet whose first book or poem got you interested in poetry?
Patricia Smith’s Blood Dazzler broke something open in me, as did Allen Ginsberg’s Howl.
I had always liked poetry, but I never felt the magnetic pull I felt when I read Blood Dazzler. It was like I’d been listening to classical music all my life and someone suddenly busted out an electric guitar. The language was electrifying: sharp and surprising, and she wrote from so many different perspectives. It was the first time I remember thinking, If this is what contemporary poetry is, then I want to learn to be a poet.
Before that, when I was still writing fiction and admiring poetry from a distance, I always returned to Allen Ginsberg’s Howl. I was drawn not only to its history, risk, chaos, and unbridled energy, but also to the way it seemed to move like a stream of consciousness. The poem was full of strange, inside-out images and language that kept surprising me. It felt unruly and alive, as if the poem were discovering itself as it went.
Which poetry books are you currently reading?
Death Does Not End at the Sea by Gbenga Adesina (University of Nebraska Press, 2025) and Staying Still by Hieu Minh Nguyen (Tin House, 2026)
It’s always exciting to discover a poet so good you literally gasp out loud and throw the book across the room. That’s Gbenga Adesina for me. He builds tension with extraordinary precision, and ache runs through each poem like a spine. His adjectives are simple yet completely surprising, making everything feel unexpected and fresh. He writes about something as timeless as grief and makes it feel as though you’re experiencing it for the first time, while also making you feel as though the poem has quietly settled beside you in your own grief.
Hieu Minh Nguyen was one of my gateway poets, showing me how a poem can erase the distance between reader and speaker, making you feel as though you’re standing together, heart to heart. From a craft perspective, his poems are masterpieces, weaving the plainly spoken with the surprising and surreal. They are also acts of boldness and risk, explorations of what it means to show up on the page with every tender hurt and hard-won healing, holding nothing back.
Is there a book on the craft of writing that you recommend to poets?
Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life After Which Everything Was Different by Chuck Palahniuk (Grand Central Publishing, 2020).
This book explores so many elements of craft that transcend genre: how to harness tension and keep it taut, how an image can expand and evolve, and how to hold a reader’s attention through narrative stakes (yes, poems need stakes!) and careful variations in tone and syntax that keep a reader on their toes. Palahniuk also offers practical advice, including how to get people to show up for your readings. He’s irreverent and holds nothing back, making you laugh while speaking openly and honestly about what it takes to build a writing life, both on the page and beyond it. It’s a rare craft book that manages to be both deeply instructive and wildly entertaining.
Who is a new voice in poetry that we need to check out–someone with a debut book or recent release?
Wet Reckless, Victoria Lynne McCoy’s debut (Riot in Your Throat, 2026).
I have been a fan of Victoria’s for such a long time—I’ve been waiting years for this book to come out, and I am so glad it’s finally here. I don’t think I’ve ever read one of her poems without thinking, God, she is so good. Her writing has no pretense. She makes intimidating eye contact with the darkest, most vulnerable, most human parts of herself and doesn’t flinch. And then she sets it all to music. My god, her music. I could live inside the lushness of her lyric forever and ever.
Finally, what’s a poetry book that others may not know about but deserves a shout out?
Burning the Ghost Light by Caitlin Conlon (Central Avenue Poetry, 2025)
Burning the Ghost Light is an innovative, unyielding powerhouse of a book, a genre-bending collection that expertly harnesses the urgency of playwriting, the deep interiority of prose, and the stark surrealism of poetry. Caitlin does what the best poets do: she slows down and savors each ache and awe, life’s entrances and exits, creating an emotional landscape so vulnerable, so lived-in, it takes your breath away. This is hands down one of the most honest and inventive collections I’ve read in years.
About Kelly Grace Thomas
Kelly Grace Thomas is the author of Future Tense (Alice James Books, 2026) and Boat Burned (YesYes Books, 2020). Her poems have appeared in The Sun, Best New Poets, The Adroit Journal, 32 Poems, Los Angeles Review, Sixth Finch, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of the Jane Underwood Poetry Prize and the Neil Postman Award for Metaphor. You can read more about her work at kellygracethomas.com
Books referenced in this article.
Future Tense (Alice James Books) by Kelly Grace Thomas
Blood Dazzler (Coffee House Press) by Patricia Smith
Howl (City Lights Books) by Allen Ginsberg
Death Does Not End at the Sea (University of Nebraska Press, 2025) by Gbenga Adesina
Staying Still (Tin House, 2026) by Hieu Minh Nguyen
Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life After Which Everything Was Different (Grand Central Publishing, 2020) by Chuck Palahniuk
Wet Reckless (Riot in Your Throat, 2026) by Victoria Lynne McCoy
Burning the Ghost Light (Central Avenue Poetry, 2025) by Caitlin Conlon