I Am Woman

Poetry December 2021 ISBN 978-1-936628-87-2 46 pages Softcover, 6" x 9"

Accents Publishing's first poetry collection by Affrilachian poet Yvonne Johnson, I Am Woman, is an exploration of how patriarchal societies define womanhood. Many women find themselves in a world where rape culture and purity culture dominate how they view their body and what it means to be a woman. This chapbook confronts many topics from the sexualization of the female body and a lack of sexual education to experiences of sexual abuse and the complexities of gender.

"Yvonne M. Johnson's poetry possesses an unflinching honesty and lyrical beauty even in the midst of painful subjects. The poems of I am Woman are strongly womanist and Affrilachian. Johnson explores the nuances of gender and sexuality with lyrical compassion and gives female bodies voice."—Kelly Norman Ellis

body

From the Book

The Performance

They say the artist must be willing
to be naked, to rip flesh from her
own bones & give it to the world
for safekeeping. She must stand

before sleepless eyes & speak
our sins. She must ignore creeping
fingers & clattering teeth, hands
holding olive branches & knives

unsure which one they'll raise.
Because if she doesn't, if she
lets fear clench her tired muscles
close, she removes the voices

from the throats who need it most.
But she was never ready to be
a skeleton shivering on our stage.
She was never ready for the knives.

What Others Say

Yvonne M. Johnson's poetry possess an unflinching honesty and lyrical beauty even in the midst of painful subjects. The poems of I am Woman are strongly womanist and Affrilachian. Johnson's mastery of language is precise, yet deeply emotive. She explores the nuances of gender and sexuality with lyrical compassion and gives female bodies voice. I will always keep these poems close.

— Kelly Norman Ellis

I Am Woman is electric, unexpected, experimental and alive with longing, heart and physicality. The poems yearn and pierce—question and hold. This collection is alive & seeing. Taking stock of the body—our own & the bodies around us. This is a calling. A watchful gathering. A place to return. Yvonne M. Johnson is a brilliant & stunning poet. Her voice will stay with you long after you read the last poem.

— Ellen Hagen

These brilliant-assed poems are fierce. They will get under your skin. They will make you want to smack somebody, to throw something across the room and not apologize. They make me want to run and hug all my daughters, to bow down in humility, to be a better man. It takes a rare gift and command of craft to conceive, compute, engineer, and manage such intricate forms without once surrendering the beauty and power of words. This collection will crack you wide open, fill you up and leave you longing for more. To love these poems is to stand in solidarity with everything good and whole!

— Frank X Walker

About the Author

Yvonne M. Johnson

Yvonne M. Johnson graduated from the University of Kentucky with degrees in English and Computer Science. As an undergraduate, she was inducted as an Affrilachian Poet, served as president of her university's creative writing club, and was managing poetry and German language editor of the undergraduate literary journal. She also holds a master's degree in cyber security from Lancaster University in England, which she completed on a Fulbright scholarship. When she is not writing, she can be found riding horses, training her Labrador to find missing people, and legally hacking into her customers' computer systems.