where despair runs deep & hope's embrace will keep my head above water

<p><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)><em>where despair runs deep & hope's embrace will keep my head above water</em></strong><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> </em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>is a curated anthology of contemporary voices from South Carolina-featuring both student and adult poets. Spanning Goose Creek Summerville North Charleston downtown Charleston and including a poet from the Columbia area these poems hold space for grief beauty resistance and renewal.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The collection is divided into two parts:</span></p><p></p><p><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>// we're learning to surface</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> features poems by student writers navigating identity emotion and the glimmers of voice.</span></p><p><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>// we carry what the water gave us</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> gathers work from adult poets reflecting reckoning and remembering.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Together these sections lift up emerging youth alongside established local writers offering an honest genre-defiant look at what it means to be human here and now. With themes ranging from mental health to justice memory to transformation this book is a testament to the creative pulse of the Lowcountry-and to the way poetry gives language to what we're carrying.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Featuring:</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Adyson Hallows</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Addison Edwards</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Abigail Sullivan</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Aniyah Martin</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Aziia Bailey</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Bri Miller</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Carrie Parker Ackerman</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Charlee Reed</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Cheyenne Hurst</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Conner Poss</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>DaJenqiue McBee aka @Speak_nek</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Faith Walker</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Heather Rose</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Hero Howard</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Kaitlyn Johnson</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Keira Grantham</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Layle Keane Chambers</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Le'Mar Smalls</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Linda Joy Walder</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>malarilesley</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Natasha Akery</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Sofie Williams</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>William Lawrence Johnson</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Compiled by Marcus Amaker Charleston SC's first Poet Laureate and a South Carolina Literary Hall of Fame inductee.</span></p><p></p>