Freedom Rings, Freedom Sings, Freedom Dances.

by Janay Lamb

Based in Long Island, New York, poet Janay Lamb has devoted herself to the art of writing. After publishing her beautiful debut book, Heartbreaks, Headaches, and Smiles, she went back to work on a second collection of poems and sparked the journey that would become _Freedom Rings, Freedom Sings, Freedom Dances._

What she wanted:

A follow up collection of poetry to her debut which could hold its own and tread new ground, while still flowing in harmony with her debut poems.

What she had:

A follow up collection of poetry to her debut which could hold its own and tread new ground, while still flowing in harmony with her debut poems.

What we did...

Arrangement suggestions
Critique
Critique letter
Proofreading
Blurb
Interior layout
ePub development
Pricing development

Deep Ocean Roots . . .

Janay’s new poems were vibrant and exciting! We could really see her branching out and experimenting with pacing, new images, and new voices. Between the two collections, the power of the ocean and the natural world offered a wonderful through line and made us excited to read the collections together, knowing they would reward rereading for many lovers of poetry.

Pulling it all together . . .

Janay had a wonderfully clear vision for her second book, and in designing the cover and interior layout for this new collection it was important for us to create a look that both tied in with her previous work, while standing out as its own creation. We went for the same size, matte cover, and page color while completely mixing up the debut’s purple hue and switching it out for a warm tan. Janay already felt clear about her title, but she was unsure how the text should be arranged, so we drafted up some different options, keeping Heartbreaks, Headaches, and Smiles’ aesthetic in mind. We carried over the female figure line drawing and paired her with a train she’d freely jump off of, adding action to Janay’s growing library of covers.

What a dream...

Getting to know Janay’s poetry over two projects allowed us to see how deeply she’d developed her craft. We developed a glowing summary inspired by her work to let readers see what they’d be getting into in her second volume.

It’s no mistake that the journey to joy often begins in our deepest, most personal pain—that the clear and tranquil beauty on the ocean’s surface exists alongside its bottomless crushing dark. In Janay Lamb’s second collection, her poems dive down through the layers of her own resurgence, with the cleansing power of the sun lighting their heels. “Do you know someone else / who has revived a drowned heart so many times, / hearing the sounds of the waves stronger with each revival? // As if it hasn’t already seen all that the ocean floor / has to offer? I invented that,” she says. This confident, lyrical voice brims with hard-won wisdom and swims with both grace and swagger. Holding her own still-beating heart in her hands, Lamb shows us the thing that can only be understood fully through experience—that pain is temporary, but self-love is forever. “I will continue / to strap on my best-looking life jacket / and go wherever the waves take me,” she tells us. Freedom Rings, Freedom Sings, Freedom Dances is a powerful book that reminds us that, though hope is the thing with feathers, resilience is the thing that swims.

 

 

Stop making excuses. Make it happen.