BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT!

If Adam Picked The Apple is available for pre-order!

FRIENDS! I just submitted the final manuscript of If Adam Picked The Apple to my publisher, and I am feeling overwhelmed with excitement and fatigue. I spent years dreaming of being a published writer, and now it’s finally happening. It feels surreal.

This book is my first book of poetry and includes the Pushcart Prize winning poem If Adam Picked the Apple. For those of you haven’t read it, I’ve included it below.

IF ADAM PICKED THE APPLE

There would be a parade,
a celebration,
a holiday to commemorate
the day he sought enlightenment.
We would not speak of
temptation by the devil, rather,
we would laud Adam’s curiosity,
his desire for adventure
and knowing.
We would feast
on apple-inspired fare:
tortes, chutneys, pancakes, pies.
There would be plays and songs
reenacting his courage.

But it was Eve who grew bored,
weary of her captivity in Eden.
And a woman’s desire
for freedom is rarely a cause
for celebration.

The collection will be published on March 8th, 2025—the International Day of the Woman. Pre-orders are now available. For those who don’t know, pre-ordering a book is one of the best ways to support your favorite writers. It indicates excitement and interest, can help with bestseller lists, and makes future book deals more likely.

I’m immensely grateful to everyone who supported me on this journey, and particularly to you, the readers for sharing and amplifying my work. As an additional thank you for being a part of The Understory community, I’ll leave you with another poem from the book.

METAMORPHOSIS

We are a society obsessed 
with metamorphosis, before 
and after, caterpillar and butterfly.
A beautiful metaphor ignoring 
the brutality of transformation. 
Hidden behind a cocoon barrier,
her furry, fattened body liquified, 
digesting itself before becoming 
monarch. 

I know her anguish. I too 
have consumed former versions 
of self, the world unaware 
of my silent disintegration,
protected by mental armor. 
A violent, hungry destruction 
in the name of rebirth.

With gratitude,

Danielle