Luther Kissam V
Writer | Poet | Editor
have i told you about my superpowers
Whether “manic sailing with planets” or using “the rust of mars” to describe anger, emerging poet Luther Kissam V draws on the celestial and terrestrial to explore mental health. These elements push and pull Kissam’s poems through chaos and calm, through meditations and medications, and ultimately, to a maintained balance. For Kissam, bipolar is a gift from the moon, a gravitational force that fuels exploration of space: mental, physical and spiritual. The selected poems in Superpowers are deeply personal, revealing the tumult and tranquility teetering in us all, especially in those whose experience of beauty, joy, and pain is physical, sometimes tragic, and often supernatural. His confessions of failure, triumph, and resiliency will resonate with those affected by, diagnosed with, or curious about bipolar disorder.
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About
Luther Kissam V
Writer | Poet | Editor
Luther Kissam V is a poet, writer, and mental health advocate from Charlotte, NC where he studies English Literature at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His poems have appeared in the Emerson Review and Rejected Lit Magazine. His work grapples with resilience and mental illness. He frequently speaks in support of mental health causes to advocate for suicide prevention efforts, access to treatment, and breaking down the stigma surrounding mental illness. Along with his creative work and advocacy, he is the writer in residence of the SY Acadia where he is producing a coffee table book about marine conservation in the Eastern Tropical Pacific.
photo courtesy of Richard Israel
Events
June 12, 2022
PARK ROAD BOOKS, Charlotte, NC
3:00 PM-4:00 PM ET
We want to celebrate Luther Kissam V and his book of poems, Have I Told You About My Superpowers, with an in-person poetry reading at 3 pm on Sunday, June 12, 2022. You will be able to purchase the book and have it signed by the author.
May 17, 2022
Fig and Dove, Baton Rouge, LA
6:00 PM-7:00 PM CT
Book Signing Event
Had such a wonderful time coming home to Baton Rouge for a book signing. Got to see so many wonderful people and faces including my fifth grade English teacher, Ms. Margaret Boudreaux. Have I Told You About My Superpowers is available online on Amazon and Barnes and Nobles and in-store at @parkroadbooksclt If you’re interested in bringing an event to your home city, please reach out to me!
April 28, 2022
800 Woodfire Kitchen, Charlotte NC
6:00 PM-7:00 PM ET
Book Signing Event
Collections
Testimonials
“In one unabashedly honest and vulnerable poem after another, Luther Kissam’s Have I Told You About My Superpowers takes us on a journey from mania to acceptance to dancing along the thin edge of suicide to an approximation of peace. In the opening poem, he is “inevitably manic / sailing with planets.” In the final poem, he wakes “at six in the morning every day to “write, / read, and drink decaffeinated coffee for an hour. I watch / the Sunrise. Then, I practice gratitude. I really do…/ Still, I miss mania. / Still, depression lulls me in. “Have I Told You About My Superpowers isn’t so much about healing; it’s about undertaking the process to healing, about not giving up on the self – no matter how fraught it may be – and where that journey takes us. Is the body cured by poetry, mood stabilizers, therapy, faith? No. But is the body made better by it. Yes, Kissam, argues from “this treatment center of hope.” Yes.
– Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum, Author of Ghost Gear
“Luther Kissam takes his readers on a journey, no, a ride, through the workings of a highly-interesting and taut young mind. His ability to put just the exact image, the precise word, the bracingly relevant spin on the action in the poem, is craft beyond his years. You can be in these works, or be just, barely removed, too. But his ability to dive into the meaning of his thoughts, makes them into a mosaic of experience that is at once deeply personal and relatable, and fresh and original. His words are more than poems for the discerning reader, they are little prayers, balms, to anyone wishing to understand their own sometimes unwired thoughts and experiences.”
– Christine Arvidson, Author of The House Inside My Head and Professor of Creative Writing at University of North Carolina at Charlotte
News
UNC Charlotte student publishes poetry book to help cope with bipolar disorderSeptember 17, 2022 - 7:22 pm
Pete Earley Showcases Luther’s Work On His WebsiteAugust 10, 2022 - 2:00 pm