Seeing Double Shoutout: Future Tense by Kelly Grace Thomas

A New "Memoir in Verse"

We are so excited to share a new poetry collection by our friend Kelly Grace Thomas We’ve been fans of Kelly long before she became a published author, and now she’s releasing her second book of poetry called Future Tense.

Here’s the description of her “memoir in verse.”

Reckoning with infertility, adoption, and love under pressure, Kelly Grace Thomas’s Future Tense is a searing memoir-in-verse about a woman’s fight to become a mother while losing her own. Intimate and unflinching, Future Tense interrogates the intertwined joys and griefs of womanhood and motherhood—and how biology can sometimes turn against us. Thomas approaches illness and loss with clarity and care, writing with a generosity that welcomes listeners in. Despite their brevity, these poems refuse despair, finding meaning and connection even in the hardest seasons of life.

It’s as personal as it gets, and what is so powerful about Kelly’s work is that she’s never afraid to share the most painful and beautiful parts of life.

One of our first loves, besides theatre, was poetry, and I remember Hollie and I scribbling poems in our junior year English class, imagining ourselves as Sylvia Plath (with a less tragic ending). There were lots of missives about love and longing and things we didn’t quite understand. As we got older, we stopped writing poetry, but we never lost our love for it.

HOLLIE

When I moved to LA, I was lucky enough to find a community of friends who were poets. It wasn’t what I expected. After coming from New York, I had this idea that Angelenos weren’t as literary. That theory was quickly disproved.

I met Giselle Jones, an actress (now an accomplished therapist and mindfulness coach) who soon introduced me and Heather to Kelly Grace Thomas. At the time, Kelly was a high school English teacher and wrote fiction and poetry in her limited off time. Both Kelly and Giselle were actively involved in Get Lit, a non-profit that aims to increase literacy in schools using spoken word poetry. It reignited our passion for the art form, and we got to witness firsthand the power it has on people. For several years, we both judged their annual poetry slam, a competition for high schoolers across LA that showcases some of the best spoken word poets the city has to offer.

Heather (L) Giselle Jones, Kelly Grace Thomas (R) back in the slam poet days

HEATHER

Hollie and I have also shared how much we believe in manifesting, and we’re pretty sure Kelly is the first person we saw put it in practice. Back when Kelly was living in Venice Beach, she let us stay in her apartment when she was out of town, and Kelly had motivational quotes and manifestations pasted all over her walls. What might have seemed cheesy at the time we now know was her blueprint for success. She’s always been a believer in putting what you want out into the world, and Kelly wanted to be a writer and poet.

As someone for whom brevity is not a strong suit, I am obsessed with how Kelly can encompass so much emotion in only a few words. She can pierce your heart, make you recall a devastating heartbreak, laugh at life’s quirks, and then have you longing to leave the world behind and escape to the ocean.

Kelly’s debut work called Boat Burned

HOLLIE:

Kelly never shies away from hard topics and like most great writers, she writes what she knows. And what she knows is something I know all too well. I lost a baby in 2015, and eight months later, I lost my mom. I went through another five years of infertility before having my identical triplets. Kelly also struggled to become a mom, while her own mother battled cancer, but thanks to adoption, she now has a beautiful daughter. As someone whose partner has been beyond supportive of my creative journey, I know how much it matters. None of what Kelly has created would look the way it does without Kelly’s wonderful husband Omid, who has been her champion every step of the way.

HEATHER & HOLLIE

As we mentioned before, pre-orders are incredibly important for authors, so please pre-order Kelly’s book and check out her other works. Kelly is also an incredible story coach, and if you’ve ever wanted to deepen your own writing practice, she’s the person to call. Pre-order link here!

What we love about Kelly’s writing is that she always finds the light and the hope, which is what we need during these dark days.

HEATHER:

As a treat, here is one of my favorite poems of Kelly’s, just to give you a taste of how talented she is. In fact, I love this poem much, I am having it printed and framed.