THIS IS MAJOR: NOTES ON DIANA ROSS, DARK GIRLS & BEING DOPE (2020)

From a fierce and humorous new voice comes a relevant, insightful, and riveting collection of personal essays on the richness and resilience of black girl culture—for readers of Samantha Irby, Roxane Gay, Morgan Jerkins, and Lindy West…

I Think I’m ready to see frank ocean (2018)

These poems are inspired by — and converse with — the singular musical and artistic phenom from whom the collection takes its title.

“I cannot get to the bottom of the brilliance behind it, or the brilliance that brilliance makes.”

—Ross Gay, author of Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude

Pantone (2016)

Produced in a limited run, each poem in Pantone is titled after a color from the company’s color space and printed on a single card with that color on the other side.

“The slickness of the design contrasts with the wildness of the poems, which careen from lyric to narrative, first person to third person, and humorous to heartbreaking. Contained within Pantone’s conceptual framework, the poems are free to be loose and peripatetic.”

— Elizabeth Hoover, author of Some Poems About Pictures

A Speed Education in Human Being (2013)

"These poems, this book, has hardwood floors, beautiful lines and doors and windows. They are built from organic steel and marble paper. Step between these pages and into a house-no, a village-that love built and decorated with keepsakes from all over the alphabet."

— Frank X. Walker, author of Affrilachia and Kentucky Poet Laureate

"In this vibrant first collection, Shayla Lawson skillfully defines being human(e) as giving thanks to the nuclear and extended family and making a sincere effort to understand/honor/be closer to those things that are greater than ourselves. Lawson turns language and vision upside down, takes our hand, and fearlessly leads us to witness."

— Mitchell L. H. Douglas, author of \blak\ \al-fəbet\