Well-known poet Phil Kaye’s new collection was published in August by Button Poetry. Kaye’s new collection is about the passing of time and the triumphs and difficulties that come with it. Kaye captures the reader, taking them on a passage through the timeline of life from childhood, to adolescence, and to adulthood – but not necessarily in that order. Readers will fall in love will the openness and vulnerability of it all and it will teach them that life is greatest when lived in the best moments.

The author Phil Kaye was raised in a California beach town to a Japanese mother and Jewish American father. Phil first fell in love with spoken word poetry at age 17. Since then, he has performed in hundreds of venues in fifteen countries. He is the co-director of Project VOICE, an organization that uses poetry to promote empowerment, improve literacy, and encourage creative collaboration in classrooms. Through his work with Project VOICE, Kaye has worked hands-on with students of all different ages in over a hundred schools around the world.

In an interview with the Knockturnal, Kaye said he talked about identity frequently in the book because he grew up with mixed race identity. “I grew up in a predominantly white suburb in California, and my mom is Japanese and my father is Jewish. I didn’t know all that many Jewish kids, and I didn’t know all that many Japanese kids, definitely didn’t know any Japanese Jewish kids. I remember feeling like this odd duck. There were all these things about growing up that no one else got.”