These Are the Words

Ages 12 to 18

These Are the Words is the empowering first-ever YA feminist collection written and illustrated by international poetry sensation Nikita Gill, containing all the things she wished someone had told her when she was a growing up.

From international poetry sensation Nikita Gill comes her highly anticipated YA debut These Are the Words: an empowering, feminist and beautifully illustrated poetry collection exploring all the things Nikita wished someone had told her when she was younger.

Reclaim your agency. Discover your power. Find the words.

Taking you on a journey through the seasons of the soul, in this collection Nikita gives you the words to help heal from your first breakup, to celebrate finding your family, to understand first love, to express your anger and your joy, to fight for what you believe in and to help you break some rules to be your truest self.

Gorgeously illustrated throughout by Nikita herself and featuring seasonal astrological poetry, this collection is an achingly beautiful, stunningly warm and fearless expression of truth from one of the most influential and well-known voices in modern poetry.

REMINDER FOR HEALING

You do not owe anyone your forgiveness.

The trees do not apologize to the wind that uproots them.

The rocks do not apologize to the erosion by the sea.

The stars do not apologize to the universe

when they are writhing and dying out.

And you are not obligated to forgive anyone

but yourself.

About the Author

Nikita Gill is a British-Indian poet, playwright, writer and illustrator living in the south of England. She has published five collections of poetry: Your Soul Is A River (Thought Catalog), Your Heart is the Sea (Thought Catalog), Wild Embers (Trapeze), Fierce Fairytales (Trapeze) and Great Goddesses (Ebury).

She is the editor of the poetry anthology SLAM! (Macmillan’s Children’s Books) and her next book, a novel in verse called The Girl and Goddess was published by Ebury on National Poetry Day 2020.