Praisesong for the People: Poems from the Heart and Soul of Texas
Ships November 4, 2025
156 pages
ISBN: 978-1-7376050-9-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2025937898
Asterism Distributor Product Page
“We turn to poetry in our greatest moments of joy and sorrow to help us tune in to our emotions and connect with others,” writes Johnston. In Praisesong for the People, poetry brings us together to celebrate the people across the state who make this land feel like home.
Edited by Amanda Johnston, the 61st Texas Poet Laureate and first Black woman to receive this honor, this vibrant anthology collects the work of 70 emerging and established poets across the state. Commissioned to write original poems celebrating everyday people, the poets in Praisesong for the People: Poems from the Heart and Soul of Texas are as diverse as the landscapes they inhabit, and reflect the intersecting identities of Texas’s population across age, gender, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disability, and immigrant communities. In these poems, their voices gather in a heartfelt chorus to praise the people in their communities who offer small kindnesses, asking nothing in return.
No one knows better than the radiant, extravagantly gifted Amanda Johnston how positivism and praise lifts up our days. And could we ever use a little more of that! I’m very heartened by this gathering of grateful poems.
— Naomi Shihab Nye, author of Grace Notes: Poems about Families
Here is my praisesong to Amanda Johnston’s expansive vision and to this resonant collection of voices and their praises to the everyday people of this big, troubling, diverse, and dynamic state we call home.
— Carrie Fountain, author of The Poem Forest
Featuring praise poems by Kendra Allen, C. Prudence Arceneaux, Sara Bawany, Gaby Benitez, Claire Bowman, Lauren Brazeal Garza, KB Brookins, drea brown, Marie Brown, Jenny Browne, Joe Brundidge, Cloud Delfina Cardona, Paola Carrasco, Camari Carter Hawkins, Avery C. Castillo, Julieta Corpus, Victor Leo Cruz, Logen Cure, Terry Dawson, Audrea Diaz, Tarfia Faizullah, Icess Fernandez Rojas, Carrie Fountain, Mag Gabbert, Jasmine Games, Daniel García Ordaz, Chera Hammons, Alicia Harmon, SG Huerta, Amanda Johnston, Katelin Kelly, Aris Kian, Ella Kim, Jennine “DOC” Krueger, Dr. Rosalee Martin, Kaitlyn Marzetta McClung, Jasminne Mendez, Lupe Mendez, Zell Miller III, Jonathan Moody, Bo Hee Moon, Lisa L. Moore, Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, mónica teresa ortiz, Sebastian Páramo, Bianca Alyssa Pérez, Emmy Pérez, Phillip Periman, Kenan Phillip, Julie Poole, Amanda Puryear El, Octavio Quintanilla, jo reyes-boitel, Gerard Robledo, Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson, Jan Seale, ire’ne lara silva, Shasparay, Naomi Shihab Nye, Ebony Stewart, Nomi Stone, Robert Tinajero, Sam Treviño, Pat Tyrer, Alexandra van de Kamp, Eddie Vega, Annar Veröld-Miranda, Edward Vidaurre, April Sojourner Truth Walker, and Sasha West.
Another Way To Say Enter
In Amanda Johnston's debut collection, Another Way to Say Enter, readers are offered glimpses of scenes as if peering through windows and doors. Bright and sharp, precise in their Imagism, Johnston's poems distill moments to their essence, challenge notions of what it means to fully examine a life day by day, room by room. These poems are both visceral and spiritual, reminding the reader that entry, departure, and the inevitable return is a journey that must be felt, not just imagined.
Argus House Press, 2017 / ISBN 978-1-64136-126-2
Poems from Another Way to Say Enter Online
GUAP
guap - (gwa'p), n - a considerable amount of money, most often cash, indicating a high degree of purchasing power. – UrbanDictionary.com
These poems highlight the economic struggles and emotional consequences of finding and making a way to make do. Lottery tickets, layaway, and hope line the pages of this collection.
Sold Out
LOCK & KEY
The poems in Lock & Key step beyond the gate one builds around themselves so they may see their heart in full view. I wrote these poems to see the woman I am down to the grit and marrow. This is the start of a deep exploration of self. Open. Enter.
Sold Out
Artwork by Ahyana Johnston
POEMS
"We Named You Mercy," Poem-A-Day, Poets.org
“When My Daughter Wasn’t Assaulted,” No, Dear Magazine
“Facing US,” Pluck!: The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture
“Man Picking Cotton,” Puerto del Sol
“Mixed Blood,” Kinfolks Quarterly, Issue 2
“Blade Speaks at Career Day,” Kinfolks Quarterly, Issue 2