Press
"For me, reading the work of Ruth Forman is to watch
everything inside of you realign with the healing power of truth.For me, reading the work of Ruth Forman
is to watch everything inside of you realign
with the healing power of truth."
—Elizabeth Duvivier
May 18, 2022
Insider: I grew up without seeing myself represented in the books I read. That has changed for my Black daughter, and it's helping me heal.
May 12, 2022
Deborah Kalb: Q&A with Ruth Forman
October 19, 2021
The Butterfly Forecast with Melody Ehsani and Julie Burns Walker
Ruth Forman: The Power of The PoetJuly 28, 2021
NPR Here & Now: With 'Curls' And 'Glow,' Poet Ruth Forman Wrote The Books She Wanted Her Daughter To Read
May 4, 2021
The Tiny Activist: Glow Review
April 26, 2021
Parents.com: 5 Parents-Approved Children's Books to Read Right Now
“Glow… A welcome addition to the toddler-lit shelf, which could use more reads reinforcing identity and self-love.”
April 26, 2021
Cafemom: Curly Hair? This Author Very Much Cares (And Wants Everyone Else To as Well)
“Add this gem to your child’s library ASAP.”
— Lauren GordonMarch 11, 2021
WNDB: Q&A With Ruth Forman, Curls and Glow
“I recommitted to write stories for children of color, and especially girls of color, that would reinforce self-love and identity. I sought to write new children’s books that would encourage and celebrate identity, focused especially on this age group.”
— Ruth Forman
March 2, 2021
NBC Washington In the Community: DC-Area Authors Write Kids’ Books With Positive Images of Black Girls
February 28, 2021
Moms.com: Interview: Ruth Forman, Author Of ‘Curls: An Ode To Black Girls’
February 8, 2021
SheKnows: Beautiful & Brilliant Children’s Books by Black Authors & Artists
“It’s never to early for kids to learn to love themselves and others’ differences.”
— Sabrina Rojas WeissJanuary 30, 2021
The Tiny Activist: Curls Review
January 28, 2021
NBC News [Know Your Value]: Celebrating Every Body: 9 Books to Help Young Girls Build A Positive Image
“…A playful board book that celebrates Black girl curls and all the joy that comes with them!”
— Ciarra ChavarriaJanuary 22, 2019
Squam Art Workshops Maker Profile
“For me, reading the work of Ruth Forman is to watch everything inside of you realign with the healing power of truth.”
— Elizabeth DuvivierMarch 13, 2013
As It Ought to Be Saturday Poetry Series
“I read [Prayers Like Shoes] from cover to cover… I was inspired. I was reminded of what I love in poetry. Experience. Connectivity. Reading someone else’s words and feeling that I am not alone, that I am part of a community, of a human world.”
— Sivan Butler-RotholzOctober/November 2012 issue
Interview in The Writer’s Chronicle
“Some people dance, some people manage numbers, some people are beautiful visual artists…I write. When somebody comes to me and explains how they were moved by the arrangement of my words, to me, that’s the highest offering I can give.”
— Ruth FormanAugust 9, 2007
NPR News and Notes: Black Characters Fill Roles in Children’s Books
April 18, 2007
NPR News and Notes: Poet Ruth Forman Reads from ‘Callin out the Moon’
Ruth Forman’s first book of poems, We Are the Young Magicians, announced the arrival of a major new talent, giving voice to a new generation of young African-American artists, new “young ‘sistapoets’ in whose steps [she] follows-Audre Lorde, Alice Walker and Sonia Sanchez-but also boldly blazes brand new trails.”
— Quarterly Black Review of Books“Whether written in the spunky voice of the street, the dynamic voice of the ‘sista,’ or the tempered, meditative tongue of the aged, Ruth Forman commands those voices with a lyrical ease and certitude. Her childhood memories are served up as crisp and clear just as she delineates the surging energies of emerging sensuality. Ruth Forman is a poet of vibrant sensitivity.”
— Gloria Oden, Melus“A 24-year-old poet who would appear to be a direct descendant of Nikki Giovanni and Ntozake Shange.”
— Publishers Weekly“Forman’s poems jump, rage, dance, slap, sing, and cry truth.”
— NAPRA Trade Journal“Winner of the 1992 Barnard New Women Poets Prize. African American poet Forman combines the street-swing of the slam-scene with the background sobriety of life lived amidst war and racism.”
— Booknews, Inc.“Here, in her second book, her poems are like carefully banked embers. Renaissance traces the life cycle as Forman pays tribute to her ancestors (both literal and metaphoric), including a profoundly wise and moving memorial to her mother; offers love poems notable for their determined self-respect; and presents a set of spiritual meditations on friendship, expression, and community.”
– Donna Seaman, Booklist“Stunning and Beautiful, [Forman’s poems] use incantatory language that heals; through references to writers of the Harlem Renaissance, the work builds a bridge for a new generation.”
— Library Journal
