Forgive Yourself These Tiny Acts of Self-Destruction

Jared Singer, 2019.

With work that ranges from the laugh out loud funny to the silence and rage of loss, Forgive Yourself These Tiny Acts of Self-Destruction is a must read. 

This is a collection of work that asks itself for forgiveness while becoming an instruction manual on how readers can follow suit. These complex and passionate poems make space for a narrative about the self in the wake of destruction.

It explores American culture and examines how Singers identity as a Jewish American underpins daily life. This book tells us that forgiveness has the power to grant a release from the shame we carry about our decisions. Forgive Yourself was written from a place of vulnerability and pushes us towards compassion for the person we are with the most, ourselves.  

Praise for Forgive Yourself These Tiny Acts of Self-Destruction

Jared Singer has constructed deeply nuanced, breathtakingly honest pieces for his readers to revisit often, making new discoveries each time. This collection asserts Singer as an authentic, confessional voice capable of creating depth and complexity that begs for further opening and unraveling.

- Chris August, author of Loving Instruments

Jared Singer is an honest, gentle, fearless engineer who has compiled an in-depth and thorough instruction manual on how to hope, to survive, to cope, and to champion beauty.

- Mighty Mike McGee, author of In Search of Midnight: The Mike McGee Handbook of Awesome

Jared Singer’s bone shattering honesty is disarming, and delightful.

- Rico Frederick, author of Broken Calypsonian

Following themes of childhood, self-image, social justice, love, and magic, this collection makes good on its promise of absolution.

- Brendan Constantine, author Dementia, My Darling