Andrea Gibson, 2021
You Better Be Lightning by Andrea Gibson is a queer, political, and feminist collection guided by self-reflection.
The poems range from close examination of the deeply personal to the vastness of the world, exploring the expansiveness of the human experience from love to illness, from space to climate change, and so much more in between.
One of the most celebrated poets and performers of the last two decades, Andrea Gibson's trademark honesty and vulnerability are on full display in You Better Be Lightning, welcoming and inviting readers to be just as they are.
Awards
2022 American Library Association Over The Rainbow - Shortlist
2023 Feathered Quill Book Awards - Poetry - Winner
Praise for Andrea Gibson
Andrea Gibson’s work shows up to your door without any pretension. It gives, pushes, and asks, knowing that even its beauty cannot answer it all. Each poem is a small fire signaling home, and home happens to be ourselves. Gibson has generously given us a blissful surrender to the immensity known as love.
— Yesika Salgado, author of Corazón
With such tenderness and empathy and humor, Andrea Gibson’s You Better Be Lightning does such important dreaming work, visioning work, looking work, in this stunning collection of generous poems. Of these poems’ infinite superpowers, my favorite might be their use of anecdotes as a sort of beckoning, welcoming a reader into this book’s lush ecosystem of intimacy. Read these poems and feel held, welcomed, forgiven.
— Safia Elhillo, author of Home Is Not a Country
