A Debut Collection · 2026
SENT
poems by Tavonte Jackson
A book of letters never meant to be opened. Of poems written to lovers, ancestors, addictions, the country, and the boy he used to be. Each one sealed in glass, set adrift, somehow still arriving, the way grief does, the way grace does.
Eight chapters. Eight oceans.
Each section of SENT is named for the body of water it crossed to reach you.
I
Tide
Love & longing
II
Undertow
Mental health
III
Salt
Manhood
IV
Horizon
Faith
V
Wake
Social justice
VI
Shore
Healing
VII
Current
Identity
VIII
Pacific
Home
An excerpt
I write to my younger self the way
the ocean writes to the shore —
in long sentences,
with no expectation of being read.
Just hoping something I send
will be tender enough to keep him here.
— from "Letters to the Boy I Was"
Praise
"A debut that does not flinch. BoJack writes the interior of Black manhood with a counselor's precision and a poet's wound."
— Reviewer, forthcoming
"Sent reads like a confession that knows it will save someone. The bottle was always going to find a hand."
— Reader letter