Praisesong for the People: Poems from the Heart and Soul of Texas edited by Amanda Johnston

“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+, differently-abled, 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. 

Praise the bus driver who ferries us safely across town. Praise the abuela who dries our tears. Praise the librarian who protects young curiosity. Praise the therapist with an open door, the teacher fluent in the language of affirmation. With story, testimony, and song, these poets give our unsung community heroes their flowers.

With an introduction by Texas Poet Laureate Amanda Johnston. 

Praisesong for the People officially ships & launches November 4th! 
The first 100 pre-orders will receive limited-edition ephemera.

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

Amanda Johnston is a writer, visual artist, the 61st Texas Poet Laureate, and founder of Torch Literary Arts. Johnston is the author of two chapbooks, GUAP and Lock & Key, and the full-length collection Another Way to Say Enter (Argus House Press, 2017). Her work has appeared in numerous online and print publications, including Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry (Northwestern University Press, 2019), edited by Lauren K. Alleyne. She is a former board president of the Cave Canem Foundation and the founder and executive director of Torch Literary Arts. In 2024, Johnston was appointed the poet laureate of Texas. In the same year, she received an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship.

✦ Online Publications ✦

✦ Poets.org: Praisesong for the People: Celebrating the Heart and Soul of Texas

✦ Texas Monthly: Praise Be! Poetry Just Got Funded!

156 pages
ISBN: 978-1-7376050-9-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2025937898
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