YesYes Books always has innovative releases at their booth at AWP. That’s where I met Sara Youngblood Gregary signing copies of her speculative poetry collection, Dead Boys in Space, winner of the 2023 Pamet River Prize. The cover art captured my imagination and the concept drew me in. Dead Boys in Space revisits the AIDS epidemic of the late twentieth century through the perspective of a sister mourning the loss of a brother she never knew.
“To me, the collection really wrangles with how generational loss — of people, of memory, of mentors — has shaped my life and, more broadly, the lives of queer people born after the AIDS crisis,” writes Youngblood Gregory. “To do that, I use sci-fi and speculative fiction to imagine a world in which gay men didn't die from AIDS, but were exiled into space.”
Youngblood Gregory weaves eulogies, interviews, memoirs, statistics and interviews into the fabric of the poems in Dead Boys in Space. In the book’s notes section, I found her motivation behind it, moving: “I began to understand that memory is like fire–it must be tended, constantly, by every generation.” Dead Boys in Space provides kindling to keep the fire alive as it revisits, reimagines, and pays tribute to those lost. It’s available for pre-order on The Poetry Shop, with a release date in mid-May.
Sara Youngblood Gregory joined us to share some of her favorite books. Read on to see which books have influenced and inspired her journey.
Welcome to The Poetry Shop 5, Sara! We always start by asking writers: who was your first favorite poet or book of poetry?
I was lucky enough to be raised into a family of readers — and so I have many fond memories of reading, and being read to, as a child. Most children’s books are, in fact, poetry. Songs, lyrics, verse, rhythm and repetition. It’s all there. There are so many I could name: Goodnight, Moon, Love You Forever, Chrysanthemum, The Giving Tree, The Paper Bag Princess, The Snowy Day . . . I still read children’s books now! I recently read We are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom and Michaela Goade and I bought a copy of a more recent book called What Color Is Night? by Grant Snider for a friend’s birthday. Anyway, I say all this because I really believe that poetry is the language of children. As adults, we sometimes have to work harder to find our way back to our mother tongue.
Which poetry book are you currently reading?
My poetry collection, Dead Boys in Space, uses speculation and poetry to explore the AIDS crisis, and in particular the feeling of not-knowing, of not-remembering and the strange sort of grief that happens not just from a person’s death, but from missing out on that person’s life. It’s the feeling of parsing through memories and stories and dreams that can only ever be secondhand. So, perhaps unsurprisingly, I find resonance and often great comfort in the works of poets and writers who lived through the AIDS crisis — or those who did not survive but whose voices and writing did. Right now, I’m reading Outliving Michael by Steven Reigns, in which Reigns catalogs his deep friendship with Michael Church, who died of AIDS in 2000. In the book, Reigns is a memory keeper, memoirist and memorialist . . .Outliving Michael is such a moving, understated and powerful collection.
I also just finished Someone Was Here by George Whitmore, which was published in 1988. That was a non-fiction book telling three different stories of people affected by AIDS, which Whitmore wrote even as he was navigating his own diagnosis. He described the book as “snapshots taken from a speeding train.” Whitmore died a year after the book was published.
On my shelf waiting for me is a book by the poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas, which I am looking forward to. That’s just what has caught my eye lately, but there’s been an incredible amount of AIDS-related writing published in the last 5 or 6 years across all genres — fiction, poetry, novels, art, history, academic, nonfiction, everything. For those who are interested, there is a list of over 100 works published since 2020, compiled by Theodore (ted) Kerr and Alexandra Juhasz with help from those involved in the HIV / AIDS response, and others. It’s such a generous and humbling resource. Here is the link: PANDEMICS + BOOKS
Is there a book on the craft of writing that you recommend to poets?
Absolutely! Last summer, I did a deep dive into Ursula Le Guin, and I read the entire constellation of Ekumen works — which encapsulates a range of novels, short stories and novellas connected not by any linear narrative or story arc or characters, but by the universe in which its characters live and struggle and strive. Novels such as The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed fall into this Ekumen universe, as does the incredible short story collection Five Ways to Forgiveness (previously it was Four Ways to Forgiveness), the anti-war and anti-imperialist novella The Word for World Is Forest, as well as a number of other short stories that range from charming and sexy to devastating. I was very much in awe of the craft and vision and technical dexterity that went into these works, and so I began reading Le Guin’s craft book Steering the Craft: A 21st Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story. Now, this isn’t specifically a poetry-focused craft book. But it can be used across genres (or at least I have done so), and I highly recommend it. Steering the Craft is not aimed at beginners, which actually is very refreshing as many, many craft books are aimed towards those newly entering their writing. But that’s not to say the book is stuffy or academic or hard to parse — the opposite is true.
Who is a new voice in poetry that we need to check out–someone with a debut book or recent release?
Is it nepotism to talk about my press mates from YesYes Books? [laughs] I just got back from AWP in Baltimore — a huge writer’s conference that was absolutely overwhelming! But I was really struck by the kindness and talent of the other debut writers from YesYes Books, many of whom I had the privilege of hearing read. I was especially taken with Arah Ko’s Brine Orchid, Alycia Pirmohamed’s Another Way to Split Water, grace (ge) gilbert’s Holly (YesYes Books, June 2026) and Mckendy Fils-Aimé’s sipèstisyon (YesYes Books, June 2026). At the conference, I also picked up a copy of the 2024 Dwarf Star anthology, released by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association. The cover is an illustration of a figure juggling various planets against a swirling pastel background. Inside is just as good, with a number of micro speculative fiction poems. I love Franny Choi’s work too — Soft Science and The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On. I’m just excited about speculative work in general, it’s such fertile, strange ground and especially right now, no matter if it is poetry or fiction. But for poetry in particular, it is wonderful to see the Hugo awards open up towards poets.
Finally, what’s a poetry book that others may not know about but deserves a shout out?
I have to go back to my roots here — lesbian poetry! These aren’t particular works, but writers I always find my way home to are tatiana de la tierra, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Pat Parker and Judy Grahn, just to name a few. Most of these poets I was exposed to through the lesbian literary journal and publisher Sinister Wisdom. I highly recommend anything and everything from Sinister Wisdom’s Sapphic Classic series, which brings back into print hard-to-find or or out of print works of lesbian writing.
About Sarah Youngblood Gregory
And here is my bio: Sara Youngblood Gregory is an award-winning journalist, editor, and author. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The New Republic, New York Magazine, Vice, Teen Vogue, Cosmopolitan, The Guardian, them.us, and many others. Sara serves on the board of the lesbian literary and arts journal Sinister Wisdom, where she is currently editing the forthcoming Butch-Femme Renaissance issue. She was the News and Reporting Spring 2023 Fellow at TransLash Media, covering anti-trans legislation and community organizing in her home state of Florida. In 2023, Sara was the recipient of the Curve and NLGJA Award for Emerging Journalists. The same year, her speculative poetry collection Dead Boys in Space won the 2023 Pamet River Prize from YesYes Books and will be published in May 2026. Visit her website at saragregory.org. Follow her on Instagram at @sinister.spinster
Books referenced in this article.
Dead Boys in Space (YesYes Books) by Sara Youngblood Gregory
The Giving Tree (Harper Collins) by Shel Silverstein
Outliving Michael (Moontide Press) by Steven Reigns
Steering the Craft: A 21st Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story (Harper Perennial) by Ursula K Le Guin
Another Way to Split Water (YesYes Books) by Alycia Pirmohamed
Brine Orchid (YesYes Books) by Arah Ko
Soft Science (Alice James Books) and The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On (Ecco Press) by Franny Choi
Books by Minnie Bruce Pratt, Pat Parker and Judy Grahn
