Absolutely stunning collection. I'll be recommending this one far and wide. I'd give it ten stars if I could.

Mottley writes with grit and pain. Reading this book of "poems", honestly they're more like short stories, I was reminded of Nikki Giovanni, Audrey Lorde, and Alice Walker. A lot of the works are abstract, but the cadence is telling.

5 stars

After reading and thoroughly enjoying _Nightcrawling_, I couldn't wait to tear through this collection. Mottley - again - does not disappoint.

These poems are gritty and reflect what I'm growing accustomed to from Mottley: a young person's viewpoint but through the lens of a much more experienced and worldly individual than one could ever anticipate based on this writer's actual age and experience. The entries fall into four categories - girlhood, neighborhood, falsehood, and womanhood - and they reveal further evidence that Mottley is one to watch.

I enjoyed reading these and look forward to a re-read and future teaching opportunities with them in my college literature courses.

4.5 stars. Thank you to Net Galley and Knopf for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. I was intrigued by her first publication Nightcrawling and was very interested in her poetry especially upon learning that she had been the Youth Poet Laureate in Oakland, CA. The poems are divided into sections and the headings let you know you're going on a journey - Girlhood, Neighborhood, Falsehood, Womanhood. In these varied poems she covers personal topics such a life in Oakland and being a young black woman to wider topics of history, racial justice, and the black body, These poems are touching, powerful, honest and illuminating. I'll look forward to future writings by this author.

Leila Mottley, a rising voice in contemporary literature, has once again captivated me with her debut poetry collection, "Woke Up to No Light." Known for her unflinching and emotionally charged narratives, Mottley takes us on an intimate journey through the complex landscape of black girlhood, shedding light on the societal challenges that shape the experiences of women in black bodies.

Mottley's prowess as a poet is evident from the opening lines, where she skillfully distills painful and beautiful coming of age moments into digestible parts. Drawing inspiration from her own experiences as a young black woman, Mottley speaks to the complexity of nuanced emotions that resounded deeply with me. Her words, both vivid and evocative, serve as a mirror reflecting the multifaceted aspects of black girlhood to womanhood and the communities we are a part of.

Having previously encountered Mottley's literary gift in her debut fiction book, "Nightcrawling," I was already familiar with her ability to craft descriptive and emotionally honest (raw) narratives. In "Woke Up to No Light," she brings the same level of authenticity to her poetry, providing readers with a raw and unfiltered perspective on the challenges faced by young black girls in Oakland and beyond.

As the 2017 Vice Youth Poet Laureate of Oakland and a 2018 Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam winner, Mottley brings a unique blend of passion and advocacy to her poetry and you can feel it. Her dedication to prison abolition is evident, and she has founded the youth-led program "Lift Every Voice," aiming to empower young individuals through art advocacy workshops focused on youth incarceration.

Mottley views poetry as her personal revolution as I've heard her state in prior interviews —a powerful tool to break the silence she feels and protest against the injustices surrounding her. Through "Woke Up to No Light," she invites us as her readers to join her in this protest, using poetry as a bridge to forge authentic connections, spark uncomfortable conversations, and foster understanding.

The collection resonates as soul food for black girls navigating the challenges of living in black bodies, where the constant threat of misogyny and hypersexualization looms large. Mottley's words are empowering, offering a profound understanding of our inner experiences that often unacknowledged.

"Woke Up to No Light" stands as a testament to Leila Mottley's poetic brilliance. Her ability to distill the complexities of black girlhood into visceral verses makes this collection an essential read for those seeking a deeper understanding of the intersectionality of race, gender, and societal pressures. Mottley's poetry is a powerful force, illuminating the path towards healing and self-discovery through the artful expression of shared experiences.

Leila Mottley is my heroine!
So young - and so talented.
The youngest author to have ever been nominated for the Booker Prize.
And at age 16 she was named the Yourh Poet Laureate of Oakland, California.

This wonderful Oakland, California girl (like me) blew me away with her debut novel
“Nightcrawling”.
I read it months before most people — ( before its release date) I just knew it was phenomenal. Painful truths … that I, too, related to in downtown Oakland from when I was a young girl too.
I wanted to tell the world about “Nightcrawling” …. but I was sad thinking nobody would see it - find it - applaud it - applaud Leila!!!
But then … it started winning tons of prestigious awards.
I was so proud — I wanted to take Leila in my arms and hugs herself.

I’ve been wondering and waiting to see what Leila would do next …
And here it is—- NEEDS TO BE READ!!!
“woke up no light” deserves all the awards again ….as “Aretha said:
R.E.S.P.E.C.T”

These poems come from pure
gut-wrenching brilliance…from a gorgeous African-female-young-author who has lived at least nine lives.

All the important topics and themes are covered….
Women, Black Women, Black girl desires, Boys, Daddy, Brother, Childhood, Black history, Pole stripping, Oakland Roots (cheers for Lake Merritt), a father’s influence on a daughter, raising future women, men that sneer as they group, starting over, etc.

Two small powerful sentences to contemplate:
“To be Black and Girl is not only fear the slaughter of your body, but to fear the body itself”.
“How to apologize when you are not sorry”.

Life - love - help - hope - pray - grief - loss - forgive- love some more….

OUTSTANDING poetic words of importance!

Highly recommend!

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC!

Leila Mottley’s "woke up no light" is an incredible collection that feels bold in its willingness to be genuine. There’s a reason some people think poetry think is pretentious, but I think the triumph of this book is that it elevates earnestness to an art form. You could hand this book to anyone and they would find something to admire.

This is a collection deeply concerned with the difficulty of occupying a body, particularly a Black, female body. Every metaphor showcases an incredible physicality, and Mottley has such a careful hand in deploying them to sustain the book's thematic concerns with life as a woman and the complexities that entails.

There’s fear and urgency.

There’s pride and celebration.

There’s love given and taken.

Admirably, Mottley never falls into simplifications about what it means to be a Black woman. In fact, several of these poems engage with occasionally competing priorities. For example, In “on girlhood when you are a daughter,” the narrator wrestles with the tension between racial solidarity and gendered antagonism:

"when an old black man
wants to sit at your table,
do you run or sing?"

Elsewhere, in “boys will be boys will be animals will be tender will be lost will be—," an achingly tender exploration of masculine rage and the way it isolates everyone it touches, the poet evokes bell hooks and writes:

"any little sister will tell you it is lonely:
to be the last one to let go of a held hand
the first one to clean a shared room"

On its own, this stanza was enough to make this reader’s throat catch, but Mottley’s concern with complexity means this stanza is not on its own. Halfway through the book, we see it inverted in “Crow Call” as the narrator describes her painful friendships with white friends:

"I am always destined to
let go first"

It’s easy to imagine that the narrator between these two pieces is the same person, and yet she is irreducible. These statements don’t compete—they complicate because life is complicated. In ways like this, Mottley devotes such a genuine and gentle attention to the people who populate her poems, but there is one piece in particular that really exemplifies her approach.

“Elijah McClain’s Last Words” is completely devastating. I’ve read many poems about police brutality, and they almost always shift from the personal to the political—a call to action. While such an approach is justified, this poem is gutting because it doesn’t do that. It honors Elijah by giving him the entire poem.

These are the kinds of decisions that make "woke up no light" so special, and that specificity strengthens the political weight of the work by never allowing it to be neutered through generalizations. Mottley’s explorations of gender- and race-based violence feel robust because they are always concerned at the individual level.

With all of the serious themes at play, one might expect the book to feel oppressively heavy, but these themes are genuinely “at play.” The penchant for complexity also allows the book to reach euphoric highs about what it means to be a Black woman, and they complement the underlying gravitas of the work.

I’m eager to see what kinds of discussion surround "woke up no light" when it actually comes out because there are so many themes that could resonate with readers. This is a book I would love to share in a college classroom with students who think they don’t like poetry because it captures so much of what I love about the genre—the amazement at the potential of language, the feeling of hearing a great album for the first time, and the desire to immediately go back and play it again.

I am so thankful to Knopf Books, Leila Mottley, and Netgalley for granting me advanced digital access to this heartbreakingly brutal and raw collection of poetry by one of my favorite authors and linguists, Leila Mottley.

Her debut novel, Nightcrawling, had me expressing a range of emotions, including pain, anger, and sadness from start to finish, as I read about the trials and hardships of growing up impoverished in Oakland, dying for work and something to eat. Bleeding off of this novel, I felt that Woke Up No Light conveyed many of the same themes, captivating and horrifying readers with just how awful life can be based on the color of one’s skin and the tax bracket they fall under.

I grieved for Leila’s narratorial being and wanted so much better for her hopes and dreams, begging to be in the same room as her so I could hug her tight and make everything better. I also praise poets and writers who can make me angry, not at them, but for them and their circumstances. I felt incredibly immersed and outraged by the societal norms that regulated our statistically impoverished regions and provinces.

I am a hoe for this content and will consume anything this lovely woman produces. I cannot wait for publication day – April 16, 2024.

These collections of poems are more than just a collection of stories. It's about life as a Black woman and living through 'girlhood.' Leila Mottley shows these poems as a way to live through life.

Thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, Anchor, and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read these collections of poetry for review.

Wow, what a beautiful book! Deep, personal, heartfelt…at times sad, while hopeful at others, this collection of poetry will have you on a roller coaster of emotions.

In varying styles of prose, this author takes us from her early childhood, to her adolescent years, to her adulthood. It is deeply moving and personal and a story I won’t soon forget.

Leila Mottley follows her trailblazing first novel with a perfectly pitched first collection of poems that demonstrate her spark and scope. woke up no light reckons with themes of reparations, restitution, and desire.

Instant five star read. I loved the pacing of this collection and the flow from girlhood to womanhood (and every trial/tribulation in-between). I read it in an afternoon - devouring every expression of emotion.

The collection explores themes of Black girlhood, men/boys, identity, family, injustice, sexuality, and so much more. Stylistically there is a great deal of range here and I think this is a collection a wide range of people can enjoy.

Nightcrawling is one of my favorite books, so when I saw Mottley had a collection of poems coming out, I jumped at the chance to read it early. I read this in a single morning, and while some of it may have been a bit over my head (such is the case with a lot of poetry), I found this collection to be expressive and moving. Exploring themes of girlhood - especially Black girlhood - identity, family, injustice, sexuality, and so much more, Stylistically there is a great deal of range here. I think this collection will really resonate with poetry readers and I'm glad I read it

Thank you Knopf for the early eARC.

Powerful voice! Loved reading these poems, they flow and address many topics a young, Black girl would face.

Talks about girlhood and what that means, being noticed by men, how to handle
Short poems and easy to follow, easy to feel

Pick this one up if you're looking for a quick read, but not an easy one.