This is our guide to ten Amanda Lovelace poems we keep coming back to: what each one is doing, why it lands, and where to read it. Lovelace is a living poet and her work is in copyright, so we don't reprint her poems here. We point you to her own Instagram and her books instead, and we tell you what we see in them.
Some days what helps most is a short poem that says the thing you couldn't, in fewer words than you'd have used. We've all scrolled past a dozen posts until one stopped us cold. For a lot of readers, that poem has been one of Amanda Lovelace's.
Who Amanda Lovelace is
Amanda Lovelace is an American poet, born in New Jersey on 13 November 1991 and raised on the Jersey Shore, where she still lives with her spouse, the poet Parker Lee, and their three cats. She goes by she/they pronouns. She started out writing song lyrics as a child, posted poems on online forums as a teenager, and later built a following on Tumblr.
In 2016 she self-published her first collection, the princess saves herself in this one, through Amazon. She has said she didn't expect anyone to read it. People did, in large numbers, and Andrews McMeel Publishing offered to republish it. The self-published edition won the 2016 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Poetry, and the expanded Andrews McMeel edition (2017) became a USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestseller.
That book opened her series women are some kind of magic, whose second book, the witch doesn't burn in this one (2018), also won a Goodreads Choice Award. She has now published eleven poetry collections, plus a witchcraft guide, oracle and tarot decks, and in August 2026 her first graphic novel.
How her poems work
Lovelace writes in lowercase, titles included, and uses the ampersand where most poets write "and". That small choice takes the poem off the pedestal and makes it sound like a note passed across a table.
Her other big move is the fairy tale. The princess, the witch, the mermaid, the ice queen: she takes the women of old stories, who usually wait to be rescued or punished, and lets them rescue themselves. Even her book titles carry the twist. "In this one" tells you the ending you were taught is about to change.
Her poems are often very short, a single sentence broken across a few lines, so the line break does the work a comma would do in prose. Try this as you read: notice where each line ends, and ask why she broke it there.
Her books are also built as arcs. the princess saves herself in this one moves through four parts, the princess, the damsel, the queen and you, so a poem means more in its place. And because her collections deal with abuse, assault and grief, each opens with a content warning.
Ten Amanda Lovelace poems we love
When we first made this list in 2022, every poem linked to her Instagram, @ladybookmad. Two of those posts are still up, and we link them below. The other eight are no longer publicly available on her account as of October 2026, so for those we tell you what the poem gave us and point you to her books and her Instagram, where she keeps sharing new work.
1. The butterfly poem from shine your icy crown
Read this poem on Amanda Lovelace's Instagram
She posted this one in April 2021 as a poem from her then-new collection, shine your icy crown, the second book in her you are your own fairy tale trilogy. It uses the butterfly, the oldest image of change we have, to say that growing means leaving what's comfortable. What we love is the honesty of it: growth asks something of you, and you go anyway.
If you're standing at the edge of a decision right now, this is your poem. Name one small risk you've been putting off, and take it this week.
2. The stardust poem from her debut
Read this poem on Amanda Lovelace's Instagram
This one comes from the princess saves herself in this one, as she noted when she shared it in November 2018. It's a poem about worth that doesn't wait for permission, from a book whose princess stops waiting for a crown and claims her own.
The craft is in the scale. She puts something as vast as the cosmos inside one body, and you feel bigger without anyone else being made smaller. Read it on a day you've been shrinking yourself to fit a room.
3. A one-line poem for when you feel lost
This is one of her shortest pieces, close to a single line. It's about that fog where you can't see the next step, and it suggests you're still being guided, even when you can't see how.
We don't read that as "sit back and wait". We read it as permission to keep moving without the full map. So take one step you can see, today, and let the next one show itself.
4. A poem for her cats
Cats run all through Lovelace's life, and her author biography mentions the three she lives with. This short poem names them as companions through good days and bad, and it's tender without being sweet.
Our pets show us what steady, uncomplicated love looks like. If you have one, put the phone down after reading this and give them ten unhurried minutes.
5. A poem about becoming your own best self
This poem follows a woman who wants to grow and works at it every day. The important part is who she's doing it for. She's doing it to keep faith with herself.
That's a useful correction for anyone who measures progress by applause. Write down one thing you did this week only because it mattered to you.
6. A poem for her mother
Lovelace wrote this as a tribute to her mother and, by extension, to mothers everywhere. The poem lists what her mother is made of, wisdom, care, gentleness, and treats her as the blueprint for the person the speaker hopes to become.
Lovelace has also written about mothers from a much harder angle in to drink coffee with a ghost (2019), which explores a complicated mother-daughter relationship. Together they show her range. If this poem makes you think of someone, tell them so.
7. A poem about not being liked by everyone
This one is about a simple, painful truth: some people won't like you, and that doesn't mean something is wrong with you or with them. Liking can't be forced. Some people are drawn to each other and some aren't.
What makes it land is that it builds you up without putting anyone else down. The next time someone's coolness stings, treat it as information.
8. A poem about taking your seat at the table
This poem tells women to take up their space and say their opinions out loud, even if someone is disappointed. It's bold, and it's practical: you can't please everyone, so stop arranging your life around trying.
We originally placed it in flower crowns & fearsome things (2021), her Persephone-inspired collection of alternating "wildflower" and "wildfire" poems, but with the post gone we can't confirm that today. Either way, try it at your next meeting: say the thought you'd usually swallow.
9. A poem about what feminism actually means
This is one of her bolder short poems. Its argument is that feminism means a woman's choices being respected without being judged or interrogated.
It's a poem that widens the circle rather than drawing a line. Notice the next time you catch yourself judging another woman's choice, and let it go.
10. A poem about being worthy of love
The last poem on our list says that someone not loving you doesn't make you less lovable. It's a short poem with a long reach, because almost all of us have tied our worth to someone else's feelings at some point.
You can't control how anyone feels about you. You can control how you treat yourself. So start there: speak to yourself today the way you'd speak to a friend who'd just been let down.
Where to start reading Amanda Lovelace
Her poems make the most sense in the books, where each piece sits inside a story. Here's a simple way in, all published by Andrews McMeel:
- women are some kind of magic: the princess saves herself in this one (2016 self-published, 2017 expanded), the witch doesn't burn in this one (2018), the mermaid's voice returns in this one (2019), and the surprise sequel the witch doesn't drown in this one (2026).
- things that h(a)unt: to make monsters out of girls (2018) and to drink coffee with a ghost (2019), her darker, more personal duology.
- you are your own fairy tale: break your glass slippers (2020), shine your icy crown (2021) and unlock your storybook heart (2022), with characters of her own invention.
- Standalones: flower crowns & fearsome things (2021) and she followed the moon back to herself (2024), her most openly autobiographical collection.
If you're new to her, start with the debut. Her website says an updated and expanded tenth-anniversary edition is due on 16 February 2027. You'll find her full list of books on her official website and on her Andrews McMeel author page, and you can follow new poems on her Instagram.
Why her poems stay with us
Lovelace makes the old stories ours again. The princess doesn't wait, the witch doesn't burn, and the reader gets her own section at the end of the book. That's no small gift to someone who's been told for years to wait their turn.
So pick up one of her books, read a poem slowly, and notice which line you'd underline. It's probably telling you something about where you are. We're glad you're here, and we hope her words keep you company.
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