About Brianna Pastor:
Brianna Pastor (she/they) is a queer writer, empath, advocate, and author of the poetry collections Good Grief and Bellyache. Dedicated to helping others recognize their worth regardless of circumstances, Pastor centers her poetry around mental health, childhood trauma, and what it means to heal—with sensitivity and love at the root of all things. Brianna resides in New Jersey with her spouse and cat, Boogie.
About Alicia Cook:
Alicia Cook is a multi-award-winning writer and mental health and addiction awareness advocate based in Newark, New Jersey. Her work explores addiction, hope, and grief, often at their intersections. She is the author of four popular poetry collections (Andrews McMeel Publishing), including Stuff I’ve Been Feeling Lately, Sorry I Haven't Texted You Back, The Music Was Just Getting Good, and MORE Stuff I've Been Feeling Lately. In 2025, her writing was adapted into both an operatic song cycle and a contemporary dance work. She won the 2026 Central Avenue Poetry Prize and has been published in The New York Times, Rattle, HuffPost, Boudin, and numerous anthologies. www.thealiciacook.com
About the Books:
BELLYACHE by Brianna Pastor
In a world that has become increasingly difficult to navigate—physically, mentally, and spiritually—having empathy is more important than ever. But what if you have a highly sensitive mind? Highly sensitive people, known as empaths, have an expanded capacity to feel not only one set of emotions but also those of others. They experience life more deeply than the average person, leaving them more susceptible to nervous system dysregulation, emotional trauma, and abuse.
Divided into three parts—Body, Mind, and Soul—Brianna Pastor’s intimate collection of poems invites us to explore what it’s like to discover high sensitivity in adulthood and view life through an empathetic lens. Hopefully, by deepening our understanding of sensitivity and how it affects others, we can move one step closer to a more connected, healed world.
MORE STUFF I’VE BEEN FEELING LATELY by Alicia Cook
More Stuff I've Been Feeling Lately is a companion to Alicia Cook's bestselling and widely beloved poetry collection Stuff I've Been Feeling Lately, released for its ten-year anniversary. Returning to the original mixtape-inspired format that first connected with readers, this collection features sixty pieces in total: thirty poems written between 2014 and 2016 during the creation of the original book, and thirty new blackout poems created from those same works a decade later.
If you’ve read Stuff I’ve Been Feeling Lately, this book completes the story.
If you’re discovering Alicia’s work for the first time, this collection is a perfect way in.