A young and formidable American poet, Emerald Carter stuns with her debut chapbook, how to bloom… and other acts of guerrilla warfare. Carter’s collection is a retrospective on Black womanhood, the contradictions of empire, and the grief born of unrequited love. The lyrical prose and poetry celebrate divinity, interrogate the beauty of loss, and ultimately honor writing as an antidote to mortality. In this book, Carter contemplates how to grow in spite of and in light of darkness.