the space between men

Praise for the space between men:

“the space between men is some space within everyday and literary language for queer communities of Black bois and femmes. It’s a space Willis helps build with their spilling-over toolkit of poetic forms, including newly canonical African American forms like the kwansaba, the bop, and the eintou. And it’s a space Willis studies with a researcher’s remove and a linguist’s ear for sound and situation.” —Lit Hub

“Here, Willis – a poet, historian and educator – explores culture, Black history and what it’s like to be Black, Southern and queer. When those various experiences come together in poetry here, it invites readers to consider the width and depth of the spaces, and their mere existence.” —Terri Schlichenmeyer, The Philadelphia Tribune

“Through praise songs, erasures, and grammatical interrogations, Mia S. Willis crafts a lyric celebration of Blackness and queerness in the South. Their dynamic, singular poetic voice stands out and marks Willis as a rising poet to watch. the space between men is […] a standout debut collection.” —Electric Literature, “The Most Anticipated Debut Poetry Collections of 2025”

“An energetic and memorable new work that wanders language and its gaps . . . With loving care for language as more than concept, Willis is full of swift and connected moves.” —Poetry Northwest

“Boy and boi, Mia S. Willis reminds, are homophones. The same sound points toward both a present history of collective degradation and a present future of collective creativity. You can only tell the difference by the context of their utterance: who speaks, who is spoken, and under what conditions. Among other things, Willis’s remarkable debut sets out to architect a usable grammar of black boihood, a sharable system of image/shape/sound in which the black boi might be knowable, but not too knowable—expressed, but never overdetermined. And, central to this project is the poet’s careful, loving attention to the pluripotency of language, the revisability of form, the ‘divinity in the becoming.’ This book is an offering for us who long to ‘exist unordered . . . the spark of potential between the flints.’” —Cameron Awkward-Rich, author of Dispatch

“Mia S. Willis’ powerful first collection, the space between men, represents a singular achievement in form and movement. This poetry is honest, vulnerable, and bare not to inform, expose, or exploit, but to liberate, embrace, and release. This release is a gift to us all—an opening toward a yet larger embrace. In holding these poems, we hold ourselves true.” —Samiya Bashir, author of Field Theories

“In this profound and evocative collection, Mia S. Willis commands each line with a dazzling attention to language—its failures and its gaps, its lyric potential and holy plainspokenness, its politics and cultural specificities—illuminating the spaces between and within all of us. Ranging from imagistic to cerebral, humorous to heartbreaking, these poems trace a journey to self-understanding and self-permission, exploring the inner and outer battles toward building a self—specifically, a Black, queer self—and learning to ‘not be afraid to birth yourself beautiful.’ Willis’ poetic voice is brimming with personality and curiosity, as musical as it is philosophical, and the space between men is a formidable debut.” —Morgan Parker, author of Magical Negro and There Are More Beautiful Things than Beyoncé