Charred Sugar in My Bones
by Juanita Kirton
Cover Art by Linda Wulkan 

Praise for Charred Sugar in My Bones

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“Charred Sugar in My Bones is Juanita Kirton's poetic memoir, tracing a life shaped by Bajan-Brooklyn roots, childhood trauma, military service, motorcycles, and the long road toward self-reclamation. With unflinching honesty and lyrical grace, Kirton excavates memory: her mother's fading mind, her father's violence, hard-won love, and family recipes carried across generations. Structured like a meal ('Starters,' 'Main Course,' 'Dessert,' and 'Recipes'), the collection nourishes even as it confronts loss and healing. Writing from the ‘space between the shadows,’ Kirton offers a testament to survival, forgiveness, and a sweetness forged from fire.”
—Peter E. Murphy, author of You Too Were Once on Fire

 

“Juanita Kirton’s collection of poetry bubbles with the sounds, smells, and spices of the Caribbean transplanted to Brooklyn. She walks us through human life and human terror, detailing a universal brokenness while also revealing a path to healing paved with forgiveness, breath, and love. Like her beloved motorcycle, she takes us on a spiritual ride in and out of paths sprinkled with recipes, family photos, and a reimagined faith. She invites the reader to participate in a story told with images, colors, sounds, and smells—a powerful sensory experience.”
—The Rev. Adriene Thorne, Senior Minister and Child of God, The Riverside Church

 

“Charred Sugar in My Bones is a heartbreaking yet hopeful memoir crafted in poems. Juanita Kirton’s poetry is haunting, passionate, tender, and moving, but mostly it’s a gorgeous immersion into a life well-lived in spite of early trauma, with gorgeous photos and heirloom family recipes included!”
—MaryAnn McFadden, American Booksellers Association Award Winner

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“Juanita Kirton’s memoir, crafted into a book of poems, leaves no emotion untouched. Charred Sugar in My Bones will knock you off your feet, only to land with an awakening—a rush, really—of what it’s like to enter a world brimming with woundedness but saved by resilience. Kirton’s sensitivity on the page will make you weep. Beginning with her unique format from 'Starters,' to the 'Main Course,' and then to 'Dessert,' she softens her voice with the addition of her family’s recipes. What a treasure of a collection. All of it.”

—Julie Maloney, author and founder/director of Women Reading Aloud

  

“In the last line of Juanita Kirton’s poem ‘Stranger,’ she asks: ‘...if only I could love again this stranger… who is me.’ With that question as her north star, readers are invited to travel with her on an intimate quest for love and acceptance. In ‘Starters,’ the poet opens doors to the shadows, betrayals, and wonders of her childhood. ‘Main Courses’ takes the reader down back roads that beckon the author toward freedom and explores the dusty roads of being pushed to the limits in foreign lands. ‘Desserts’ offers the sweet journey of gliding toward home, to intimate lands of love and wholeness. This personal memoir of poems may open the door to less familiar lands, and the universality of the author’s question reminds each of us that all our journeys are mysteriously connected through an underground river of courage and possibility.”

—Jean M. Richardson, Co-founder, Circle of Courageous Courage

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“Juanita Kirton’s Charred Sugar in My Bones is a poetic memoir as a tasting menu, or cornucopia, holding memories of a childhood split between Caribbean sands and Brooklyn streets, water spirits, a walk with Grandpa in the snow, and the sound of ‘Mum-mee’ on piano keys. She crafts a tale of beginnings, trauma, joy, and grief. There are precious family recipes passed on as the beloved details of childhood, and challenging yet rewarding experiences of life as a soldier, along with protest poetry and love poems—a life and all its adventures well lived and well documented in passionate poetry.” —Wanda Phipps, author of Mind Honey