4.0
A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe
ByPublisher Description
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • A powerful, genre-bending mosaic of fiction and poetry that celebrates the humanity, grace, and resilience of teenage New Yorkers riding out the pandemic—from the award-winning author of Chlorine Sky
“A gorgeous, tender testament to the generation of young people who shouldered the pandemic.”—New York Times bestselling author Brendan Kiely
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Publishers Weekly, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, School Library Journal
We found out what true longing looked like. Longing for crushes to crush back the week after next. Longing for hugs. Longing for connection.
As New York goes into lockdown and neighborhoods begin to feel the brunt of the pandemic, the city’s teens persevere with love and hope amidst all the fear and loss: Malachi writes an Armageddon short story inspired by his new reality. Tariq helps their ailing grandmother survive quarantine. Zamira struggles with depression and loneliness after losing her parents. Mohamed tries to help keep his community spirit alive.
Mahogany L. Browne’s unforgettable, interconnected short stories and poems remind us to breathe as these New York City teens discover their will to survive, their determination to dream, and their joy.
“A gorgeous, tender testament to the generation of young people who shouldered the pandemic.”—New York Times bestselling author Brendan Kiely
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Publishers Weekly, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, School Library Journal
We found out what true longing looked like. Longing for crushes to crush back the week after next. Longing for hugs. Longing for connection.
As New York goes into lockdown and neighborhoods begin to feel the brunt of the pandemic, the city’s teens persevere with love and hope amidst all the fear and loss: Malachi writes an Armageddon short story inspired by his new reality. Tariq helps their ailing grandmother survive quarantine. Zamira struggles with depression and loneliness after losing her parents. Mohamed tries to help keep his community spirit alive.
Mahogany L. Browne’s unforgettable, interconnected short stories and poems remind us to breathe as these New York City teens discover their will to survive, their determination to dream, and their joy.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesA Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe Reviews
4.0
“This short but extremely impactful book was written in an interesting and captivating way for me. Written about a time, now in our history that many of us would like to forget about… the author tells one story about a NY community’s experiences during COVID in a way that held me till the end. Each chapter, a different POV, and different ethnicity, sharing how 2020 affected their personal world, while bringing each account together to tell one community’s story. This book teaches empathy as you learn how certain people got to where they are in their lives. It’s rarely about malice & mostly about circumstances, so times beyond one’s control.
This book is mos def NY & I love it for that! I smiled, I got angry and I cried like a baby (Yusef😭).
Oh, Mahogany… please give us a book just on Yusef. I would love to read where he is now in 2026!”
“so politically charged
every time i read short stories, im like “i wanna read more short stories!!” anyway…ditto
i was also a teen during the pandemic but i’m reading this as an adult - it was a disjointed experience because i was trying to feel the way i felt - whichh was completely different due to my privilege and also the fact i live in the uk. but still. i found it interesting”
About Mahogany L. Browne
Mahogany L. Browne is a Kennedy Center Next 50 fellow, writer, play-wright, organizer, and educator. Browne received fellowships from ALL ARTS, Arts for Justice, AIR Serenbe, Baldwin for the Arts, Cave Canem, Poets House, Mellon Research, Rauschenberg, and Wesleyan University. Browne’s books include A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe, Vinyl Moon, Chlorine Sky (optioned for Steppenwolf Theatre), Black Girl Magic, and banned books Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice and Woke Baby. Browne’s Chrome Valley tour was highlighted in Publishers Weekly and the New York Times. Founder of the diverse lit initia-tive Woke Baby Book Fair, Browne is the 2024 Paterson Poetry Prize winner. She is the inaugural poet in residence at the Lincoln Center and lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Other books by Mahogany L. Browne
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