The Book of Alice
Book •
Diamond Forde's The Book of Alice is a poetry collection that reconstructs her grandmother’s life through the lens of the King James Bible and other found forms, including recipes, a family tree, and a US Census report.
The work blends imagined psalms, scriptures, and notes to draw parallels between biblical narratives and the experiences of Black women across migration, marriage, motherhood, and survival.
Forde uses defamiliarization and formal play—including red-letter sections, shaped poems, and multimodal layouts—to challenge archival erasure and center oral and domestic inheritances.
The collection foregrounds spoken testimony and the musicality of language, aiming to make marginalized lives legible while resisting traditional, print-centered histories.
Winner of the 2025 James Laughlin Award, the book acts as both elegy and new sacred text for the author’s family and community.
The work blends imagined psalms, scriptures, and notes to draw parallels between biblical narratives and the experiences of Black women across migration, marriage, motherhood, and survival.
Forde uses defamiliarization and formal play—including red-letter sections, shaped poems, and multimodal layouts—to challenge archival erasure and center oral and domestic inheritances.
The collection foregrounds spoken testimony and the musicality of language, aiming to make marginalized lives legible while resisting traditional, print-centered histories.
Winner of the 2025 James Laughlin Award, the book acts as both elegy and new sacred text for the author’s family and community.
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Sullivan Summer
Diamond Forde
Diamond Forde, "The Book of Alice" (Scribner, 2026)
