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Here on this website, you can find my reviews and blog posts on books, creative writing, and poetry. I was also a tour host for Xpresso Book Tours, YA Bound Book Tours, and Rich in Variety Book Tours (2014-2019).

PoetryBooksYA - Creative writing, books, editing, •

Destinations: My New Poetry Book is Finally Available! 🧡❄️

Destinations, my second poetry book is now available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

Note: I am an Amazon Affiliate Program member, so any Amazon links you visit, I get a small commission. More info on my Affiliate Programs page.

My latest poetry book Destinations is finally available. I’m so excited to hear everyone’s thoughts on these poems. Thank you to everyone who has helped in any way make this book possible:

Aniya Anderson @anglesbyaniya for all of my photography and promo ideas...
PoetryBooksYA - Creative writing, books, editing, and mental health. •

SAG-AFTRA Actors/Writers' Strike Thoughts

Here are some of my thoughts about the SAG-AFTRA actors/writers strike.

The nearly 160,000 members of SAG-AFTRA are on strike.

On Thursday, the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), the union that represents all performers on film and television, announced its national board voted unanimously to launch the guild’s first strike. The news was unveiled by SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher (yes, The Nanny star) and National Executive Director & Chie
PoetryBooksYA - Creative writing, books, editing, and mental health. •

Travel Blog: Chicago - 2023 ALA Spectrum Institute | ALA Annual Conference

I’m back from my trip to Chicago for the 2023 ALA Spectrum Institute during the ALA Annual Conference. I was invited by my scholarship program, the ALA Spectrum Scholarship. I’m a 2022 ALA Spectrum Scholar, so I got to attend the Institute for free!!

I had so much fun!! I brought my niece Aniya with me for some fun things too, and it was all so amazing!!
PoetryBooksYA •

My Debut Poetry Novel 'Reality Check' is Available Now!

My debut poetry novel, Reality Check, published yesterday on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and I’m still excited about it!

Summary: Emotion, time and self are the most necessary parts of humanity. Emotion draws out the best and worst parts of people. Time is something that is never noticed, until it is. The self is the deepest part of the soul that a person can recognize. Reality Check is a poetry collection written during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. These poems are how Danielle Pitter describes hope, love, family, healing and forgiveness.
PoetryBooksYA •

Should You Update Old Blog Posts // Let's Talk Bookish

Today’s my birthday, so this post is both a gift for me and you! 🙂

Created by Rukky @ Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion, Let’s Talk Bookish is a segment where discuss certain topics, share our opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts every Friday.

This week’s prompt: Updating Old Blog Posts (Suggested by Nicole @ Thoughts Stained With Ink)

Prompts: Do you ever go back and update older content on your blog? For instance, after getting new graphics or going self-hosted?
PoetryBooksYA •

Book Blogging vs. Booktok: Which One Costs More?

This was an interesting topic I saw a few people on Twitter and their own individual platforms talk about. Which social media platform should be paid more, the veteran book blog or newbie BookTok?

What the hell is Booktok?

If you’re unfamiliar with the term “BookTok”, it is essentially a community of users on TikTok who talk about books. It has become a current platform for visual and audio presentation for book fans. They share what they are reading, their favorite books, tropes, characters, and more. I’m not on TikTok very often, but when I do occasionally pop over there, it is a bit fascinating to see some new faces and ideas for the book community to connect with.
PoetryBooksYA •

What the NAACP Means to Me // 'Black Media Speaks' Virtual Panel #BlackLivesMatter

For those who don't know or remember, my best friend Angela and I are creating a black-female-owned publishing company called DnA Publishing Group. We are using our voices and creativity to raise black writers (both male and female), and to create a space for us to share our work. Angela had told me about the NAACP's Black Media Speaks panel on Facebook Live last week, and we decided to watch it together. (She's in New York, I'm in New Jersey.)
PoetryBooksYA •

Macmillan's Unfair Ebook Embargo // My Thoughts on the Battle Between Libraries and Publishers

Beginning November 1, 2019, Macmillan Publishers allows libraries—no matter the size of their city or town—to purchase only one copy of each new eBook title for the first eight weeks after a book’s release.

In a statement to libraries through their vendors, Macmillan officials said the new embargo was part of "a test program" (although an “open ended” test, the release states) to assess the impact of library e-book lending on retail sales.
PoetryBooksYA •

PRIDE BY IBI ZOBOI // What If 'Pride and Prejudice' was in Modern NYC? // REVIEW

This is my Review of the Month for the review collection on

At first, I was trying to follow along with the original story of P&P, even though most of those characters were white and set in a different era. What I had found helpful was that as I kept reading, the story became its own entity rather than a page-by-page retelling.It all changes when the Darcy family moves in and takes over the whole scene of the area. To be honest, I would have picked better names forbut that's just me being nitpi
PoetryBooksYA •

Am I an Uninteresting Blogger? // DISCUSSION

Hey guys!! I know I’ve been kinda radio-silent lately and I promise I’m not dead. Or dying. Or sick. I’m literally stressed; both with my job and my personal life.

At times, I’m grateful to still even have a job, with all of the rapid turnouts and some of my coworkers leaving the company. I don’t want to snitch on anyone, given they might find me here lol, but I’ll just say I’m waiting for the next opportunity to come up.
PoetryBooksYA •

AGAIN, BUT BETTER by Christine Riccio (PolandbananasBOOKS) // A Rare Book Review # 2

I finished this book two days ago (two nights ago, actually) and I'm still trying to figure out how to say what I want to say without sounding mean or nasty. Like people actually want this book to fail because it's made by a successful booktuber/internet personality, and we know her and love her so much. I for one have been following Christine's youtube career since it's inception in 2010, and haven't stopped since. When she first announced that she was writing her debut novel, I followed pretty I followed pretty much every Writing Video she'd produced because not only did I believe that she had (has) the talents to transition into publishing novels, but also she has such a passion for books and reading that I don't see from anywhere else.

With that being said, I had a hard time enjoying Again, But Better.
PoetryBooksYA •

'THE UPSIDE OF UNREQUITED' by Becky Albertalli | AUDIOBOOK REVIEW

I listened to this audiobook on Overdrive, which does not influence the content of my review. All opinions are my own.

In a Nutshell: I enjoyed this book for what it was. Even though there were moments I thought were overdrawn for the drama and length of the novel, the character arcs, relationships between the characters, and internal dialogue kept me on board with the story. Also, the humor was amazing!

First and foremost, I want to applaud Albertalli for adding some diversity within her characters.
PoetryBooksYA •

Roundtable Q&A: Do Negative Reviews Mean More Attention?

With that being said, here is our roundtable of book-lovers who have experienced similar experiences from sharing their honest opinions. Participants include:
Amber - The Literary Phoenix
Erica - Erica Robyn
Taylor - Taylor Tracy
Cee - Dora Reads
Chloe - Book Dragons
Debbie - Debbie's Library
Camilla - Reader Attic

This topic can be expanded in general for how negative reviews are portrayed by the public. There are some people in the blogosphere who seem to think that smaller creators who have opinions and reactions to popular things, that may be different than the normal response, are only doing it for attention. They feel those reviewers need to speak negatively in order to make a name for themselves. But the thing is, negative commentators don't need the attention they already have.
PoetryBooksYA •

DISCUSSION: Favorite Writing Resources and Websites

As a writer myself, I use writing and journaling resources not only to help me become better at my craft, but also to keep myself up to date with publishing, marketing ideas, social media platforms, and more in the community. I hope these resources help you as they do me.

I mostly use this website to journal and keep track of my entries. I've been using it for almost 2 years, and it has a lot of good features, such as badges when you reach a certain word amount (past 750 words, which is 3 pages
PoetryBooksYA •

DISCUSSION: My Reading Pressures as a Book Blogger

The Pressure to Read "New, Best-Selling" Books -   It's not that I don't have many new books, in fact, I don't even buy books very often. I either order E-books from Overdrive, or borrow from my library. The book collection I do have, are of older books that are still beloved in general. Like Twilight, Harry Potter, Divergent, The Hunger Games, Anomaly by Tonya Kuper, fan favorites like that are proudly addressed on my small shelf. So this pressure to read all the new books to stay "relevant"
PoetryBooksYA •

BLACK PANTHER, CREATING VS. WORKING, REVIEWS & MORE | FEBRUARY 2018 WRAP-UP

In happier news, I took my mom to see Black Panther and we thought it was fantastic! There's so much I can say about this movie that meant so much to me. The sheer, unadulterated blackness, the colors, technology, social issues between Africans and African-Americans, the action, the writing, everything about this movie made me proud to be a young black woman living in America! The fact that the movie raised more money than all the more recent THOR and Avengers movies is astounding! I know T'Chal
PoetryBooksYA •

*SPOILERS* ARC REVIEW: 'ENIGMA' BY TONYA KUPER

The highly anticipated sequel to Anomaly will be released the summer of 2017!


Worst. Road Trip. Ever.


Escaping with Reid Wentworth should have been fun, but how can I enjoy it when I just (accidentally) killed someone, my mom and brother are in danger, and the Consortium is trying to enslave humanity? (Yeah, they aren’t fooling around.) So feeling something for Reid Wentworth was not part of the plan. Trying to help unite the Resistance against the Consortium means I can’t be distracted by
PoetryBooksYA •

STARFISH by Akemi Dawn Bowman | Book Review + Spotify Playlist

Kiko Himura has always had a hard time saying exactly what she’s thinking. With a mother who makes her feel unremarkable and a half-Japanese heritage she doesn’t quite understand, Kiko prefers to keep her head down, certain that once she makes it into her dream art school, Prism, her real life will begin.

But then Kiko doesn’t get into Prism, at the same time her abusive uncle moves back in with her family. So when she receives an invitation from her childhood friend to leave her small town and