Publishers Weekly
★ 11/20/2023
In this strikingly intimate debut memoir, Nehanda delivers an unflinching account of living with leukemia as a Black, queer, nonbinary person. The poet conveys their yearslong experience with blood cancer, which they were diagnosed with in 2017 at 23, via beautifully rendered stream of conscious prose and biting poetry; “this is not a romanticization of tragedy,” Nehanda writes in an author’s note—“welcome to my lecture on medical racism.” The creator addresses the time during which they lived with their parents while undergoing treatment, depicting their strained parent-child relationship following years of physical and emotional abuse (“Abuse is their idea of parenting”), their dealings with bigoted doctors (“American Horror Story: Racist Hospital Edition”), and the monetary worries that led to their late diagnosis (“I didn’t go to the doctor for years/ ...anything,/ including a grave,/ was better than medical debt”). A forcefully crafted collection of poetic and narrative storytelling with devastating impact, Nehanda’s searing work candidly speaks to complex truths surrounding the emotional, financial, physical, and social realities of illness and medical racism in contemporary America. Ages 14–up. Agent: Katherine Latshaw, Folio Literary. (Feb.) ■
From the Publisher
Praise for Bless the Blood:
★ "Nehanda infuses queer Black disabled resilience and wretchedness into a poetic sinew that stretches, tears, and heals again and again...Shatters mirrors and windows to reveal the jagged shards of self-determination: 'gently volatile' and absolutely crucial."
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
★ "A forcefully crafted collection of poetic and narrative storytelling with devastating impact"
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
★ “Nehanda is a gifted poet with a fiercely honest, achingly vulnerable voice. They reveal both the ugly and the beautiful, their anger (‘Concept: Coraline but Make It Black’) as compelling as their stunning love poems (‘Heaven Is at Grandma’s House’ is unforgettable) and odes (‘Nail Salon as Self-Care’)…Teens will recognize the inspirations for many of the poems, from bell hooks to Megan Thee Stallion, as they follow Nehanda’s journey to its cathartic, revelatory end.” —Booklist, starred review
★ "Nehanda crafts a gritty collection of poems and short essays that speak to the emotional, financial, physical, and social circumstances of illness and medical racism in America. ...Nehanda's writing is clear-eyed and lucid as it relates their numerous struggles and considers their own self-realization and determination to survive." —Shelf Awareness, starred review
"A recommended purchase for teen memoir collections because of the powerful writing and storytelling." – School Library Journal
"The importance of Nehanda’s debut memoir cannot be understated... This book should be in every classroom library, and in the hands of anyone fighting to survive." —The Poetry Question
"Bless the Blood is unlike any book I’ve read before. In a voice that’s utterly electric and completely new, Walela Nehanda explodes the tidy narratives of the typical illness arc. Equal parts prose and poetry, memoir and manifesto, this book rejects every trope of what it means to be sick and disabled. When in the throes of illness, it’s so easy to feel helpless, but Bless the Blood pulses with a power that’s contagious. Reading this book gives me the energy to take it on." —Suleika Jaouad, New York Times bestselling author of Between Two Kingdoms
"Walela Nehanda’s Bless the Blood: A Cancer Memoir cuts deep into the pain, everyday details, dysfunctions, dreams, and desires of being sick and disabled. Nehanda’s depiction of the medical industrial complex is spot on. ...A haunting and powerful read." —Alice Wong, Founder and Director, Disability Visibility Project
"With this stunning collection of poetry, journal entries, prose poems, vignettes, notes to self, notes to all the rest of us, it becomes clear that Nehanda's gift with words also serves as their lifeline to living with leukemia. Their refusal to sugar-coat, sanitize, sterilize, normalize, etc. is what makes this book genuinely more uplifting to me than most all illness and disability narratives. This reality, so masterfully delivered and coming from a young queer Black nonbinary person, makes it the only real successor to my beloved Audre Lorde's Cancer Journals I have ever encountered. Whether unpacking medical racism, economic hardship, or everyday ableism—whether investigating family bonds, community efforts, and the grace of our ancestors—Bless the Blood goes all out and truly deserves its own section, shelf, category." —Porochista Khakpour, author of Sick: A Memoir
School Library Journal
03/01/2024
Gr 9 Up—Nehanda, a Black, disabled, nonbinary poet, recounts being diagnosed with leukemia at age 23 and navigating the healthcare system, their estranged family, and their relationship with their fiancé in this searing debut memoir in verse. They have a way with words, and the poetic way they share their pain, how their family has mistreated them, and how Black people are treated by the healthcare system make for a powerful read. Some passages are written in prose and recount various times in their life, such as coming out and being kicked out of their home, while verse parts explore the burden they felt their sickness was on everyone around them. They also explore what it means to be disabled in an inaccessible world. The prologue touts this as not like The Fault in Our Stars because of how raw and real the author is, and they hold up to that promise. Nehanda is also inspired by Black artists such as Whitney Houston and Audre Lorde. This work runs the full gamut of emotions, and readers will be captivated by the author's poetry, heart, and pain. VERDICT A recommended purchase for teen memoir collections because of the powerful writing and storytelling.—Molly Dettmann
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2023-11-17
A young Black nonbinary activist copes with the enormity of a cancer diagnosis and medical racism, while facing the deep pain and deep love of the life they’re trying to save.
Upon being diagnosed with leukemia at 23, Nehanda embarked on a devastatingly steep learning curve about the cancer poisoning their blood and the pieces of their life and self that cancer had thrown into stark relief. Nehanda swiftly found that the casual bigotry, emotional abuse, and neglect they’d dealt with all their life were potently envenomed by ableism and might together kill them faster than the disease ravaging their body. Yet, as their struggles connected Nehanda more deeply to elders and ancestors, they were able to dig through the detritus of others’ expectations and harms and connect with themself as well. Told in a collection of poems and short essays, the book opens with warnings that readers won’t find a John Green novel in its pages and that the author-narrator will fail readers’ expectations—ghoulish and inspirational alike. Nehanda infuses queer Black disabled resilience and wretchedness into a poetic sinew that stretches, tears, and heals again and again, unspooling the mundane trauma of trying to survive as Black, fat, queer, trans, and disabled despite (and to spite) systems built to hasten their erasure. This memoir is kindred intersectional storytelling that searingly responds to Audre Lorde’s call in The Cancer Journals.
Shatters mirrors and windows to reveal the jagged shards of self-determination: “gently volatile” and absolutely crucial. (writer’s note, reading list) (Memoir/poetry. 14-adult)
