green leaves, dead trees.

Sydney’s biggest goal was to connect with people so they feel less alone. She wanted to see how her work could get better and create a book she was proud of, but the original arrangement was not yet what she imagined. So we stepped in with a plan to help Sydney perfect her book so it could reach her audience.

In September, Sydney sent us a well-developed collection of raw, honest poems. Together, we sculpted Sydney’s collection into an arc of personal transformation and healing. We created and named sections in her book to reflect themes of regeneration and regrowth, and ideas for cover concepts, illustrations, and fonts naturally branched out from our collaboration.

What really pulled us in when first reading Sydney’s manuscript was the sense of resilience at the center of it. In just a few short lines, she can be both vulnerable and tough, both raw and defiant. It is clear in everything she writes that she feels deeply—that there is an urgency to get it all down on paper. Her work is rooted in the tradition of the great confessional poets, but it has a flavor that is very much her own. She writes for her own survival.One of the things we found that Sydney has a real talent for is creating bold, evocative titles. When she first sent the manuscript our way, many of the poems were still in their early untitled forms. But during our rounds of back-and-forth critique and edits, Sydney wrote titles for all her poems, even titles for each section of this newly arranged manuscript. These titles really pushed the collection further, helping to pull its various threads together. We find that a good title is something that often gets taken for granted or overlooked. But when they are harnessed the way Sydney has done in green leaves dead trees, titles have the power to help transform a group of poems into a real book.

The poems in Sydney’s debut collection are an act of redemption and reclamation.  Sydney announced her pain aloud in verse, but what do we do with our broken parts? green leaves, dead trees seeks to find what green thing will grow in the cracks in our hearts. And Sydney’s bravery and honesty certainly reach out tenderly through these poems and offer a balm for those who are struggling.

green leaves, dead trees will be available soon for purchase.