Waiting

Suzanne Kamata's many fans know she writes wonderful fiction, but with Waiting we learn she's a poet too. Every poem in this small, beautiful book is a spare, lyrical gem. Together, they tell a haunting page-turner of a story about a town and a family grappling with loss and holding tight to hope. Each character in Waiting is fully dimensional and real, yet built from so few words I kept asking myself, "How did she do that?" I don't know, but I'm very grateful she did. - Ona Gritz, author of Geode

Seamlessly braiding true crime story and coming-of-age narrative, Kamata captures-with compassion-those long moments of longing for the next steps into sex, university life, and freedom. In this town, however, those tentative yearnings are overshadowed by the news of a missing classmate, also on the cusp of a long-anticipated adulthood; but will she ever get to experience it? In this timely novella-in-verse, Kamata adeptly uses the empty, mysterious spaces inherent in her poems to embody the uncertainty and ache of a universal moment of waiting-for the end of high school and the beginning of everything else. - Jessica Goodfellow, author of Whiteout

A teenage girl, her family, and an entire town wait for news. In these deceptively quiet, spare lines, something feels ready to spring. One teenage girl faces decisions about her future, while her missing classmate may not have one. The fierce nature of love is one of many truths that come to light in this gripping poetic narrative. Waiting is rich with suspense and depth, right to its poignant last words. - Tanja Bartel, author of Everyone at This Party