Happy, Okay?: Poems about Anxiety, Depression, Hope, and Survival (For Fans of Her by Pierre Alex Jeanty or Sylvester Mcnutt)
About this ebook
Are the usual anxiety books helping you find a path to healing? No? Try this collection of poetry specially crafted for those dealing with mental health and the people closest to them.
Poetry meets mental health. Paloma is faking it. On the outside, she’s A-Okay. She’s electrified at work, there is a cadence in her step as she walks her dog, she posts memes on Facebook, and she keeps up with most relationships. Looks can be deceiving, however. Inside, Paloma is just going through the motions, and she feels like things are spiraling out of control. But when things are at their darkest, dawn arrives with clarity and focus, and with it, healing. Paloma learns to value small glimmering moments of joy rather than searching for constant happiness, thus building hope for her future.
A manifesto for life. An electric roadmap to healing and a manifesto for wholeness, Happy, Okay?: Poems about Anxiety, Depression, Hope, and Survival, is written in a contemporary style reminiscent of Rupi Kaur and Pierre Alex Jeanty. But this poetry book is not simply a narrative spun in verse. It is an invitation to readers to shake off the stigma and silence of mental health and find strength in the only voice that matters: your own. Whether exploring self-care, social anxiety, or anxiety in relationship, in this inspiring and heartwarming book, you will:
- Understand how to make happiness a decision, even when you don’t feel it in your bones
- Find out how to exercise patience and self-acceptance
- Attract hope and purpose back into your life
If you enjoy poem books or books like Her, Black Girl Magic, Pillow Thoughts, Milk and Honey, or The Sun and Her Flowers, then you will love Happy, Okay? by M.J. Fievre.
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About the author
Born in Port-au-Prince, M.J. Fievre, B.S. Ed, earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Barry University. A seasoned K–12 teacher, a creator of safe spaces, and an initiator of difficult conversations, she spent much time building up her students, helping them feel comfortable in their own skin, and affirming their identities. Her close relationships with parents and students led her to look more closely at how we can balance protecting a child’s innocence with preparing them for the realities of life. She has taught creative writing workshops to children and teens at the O Miami Poetry Festival and the Miami Art Museum, as well as in various schools in Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia), Port-au-Prince (Haiti), and South Florida. She’s also been a keynote speaker at Tufts University (Massachusetts), Howard University (Washington, DC), the University of Miami (Florida), and Michael College (Vermont) and has served as a panelist at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference (AWP). M.J.’s publishing career began as a teenager in her native Haiti. At nineteen years old, she signed her first book contract with Hachette-Deschamps for the publication of a YA book titled La Statuette Maléfique. Since then, M.J. has released nine YA books in French that are widely read in Europe and the French Antilles, and she is the author of the award-winning Badass Black Girl book series for tweens and teens (in English). One Moore Book published M.J.’s first children’s book, I Am Riding, as part of a special limited series edited by Edwidge Danticat. A middle-grade book, Young Trailblazers, and picture book, Sam Is Afraid of Christmas, are both set to be released by DragonFruit in the fall of 2021. As the ReadCaribbean program coordinator for the prestigious Miami Book Fair, M.J. directs and produces the children’s cultural show Taptap Krik? Krak! For her podcast, MJ has interviewed many literary legends, including Edwidge Danticat, Alice Randall, and Nikki Giovanni.
