We all live lives littered with what we leave behind: places we once lived, friendships we once had, dreams we once envisioned, the people we once were. Each new day we attempt to find a way to continue living despite the absences we experience because of loss and disappointment, injustice and inequity, change and the passage of time.   Autumn Song: Essays on Absence invites readers into one Black woman’s experiences encountering absences, seeing beyond the empty spaces, and grasping at the glimmers of glory that remain. In a world marred with brokenness, these glimmers speak to the possibility of grieving losses, healing heartache, and allowing ourselves to be changed.

"And where shall we go?" Mama asks as she tucks me in. "South Africa. Where I was born." My answer summons Mama's stories, stories that send us soaring back in time to when I was a baby. Out my window. Down my street. Across water. Across continents. Where do you come from? Where does your family come from? For many children, the answers to these questions can transform a conversation into a journey around the globe. In her first picture book, author Patrice Gopo illuminates how family stories help shape children, help form their identity, and help connect them with the broader world. Her lyrical language, paired with Jenin Mohammed's richly textured artwork, creates a beautiful, stirring portrait of a child's deep ties to cultures and communities beyond where she lays her head to sleep. Ultimately, this story speaks a truth that all children need to hear: The places we come from are part of us, even if we can't always be near them. All the Places We Call Home is a quiet triumph that encourages an awakening to our own stories and to the stories of those around us.

Writer Patrice Gopo explores our shared desire for belonging and acceptance, helps us grapple with the world’s brokenness and barriers, and offers wisdom for overcoming the differences that divide us.

Which ethnicity best describes you? White? Asian? Black or African American? Native American? Other? When completing an application or survey, we pick a category we align with and tick a box. For many Americans, it is an exercise that requires little thought. But what happens when everyone around you views you as a black American, but your multicultural heritage doesn't match the narrow understanding of that category?

Patrice Gopo spent her formative years in Anchorage, Alaska, growing up as a black American, but her Jamaican parents had little experience in what it means to be black in America. Patrice was often the only child of color in her classrooms, activities, and friendship circles. Feelings of being different are occasional twinges for some, but for Patrice this was the reality of her everyday life. She had to grapple with the mixture of identities that swirled together and formed her-a journey at once both common to people and particular to her background.

In All the Colors We Will See, Patrice explores the idea of what it means to belong. In this poignant, poetic, and often courageous collection of personal essays, Patrice examines the complexities of identity formation in a modern world where cultures intersect and overlap. She seamlessly moves across the borders of space and time to create vivid and memorable portraits of the way movement and migration affected her quest for a sense of belonging. Through this journey of essays, Patrice writes about not only immigration and race relations but also topics such as societal beauty standards, marriage and divorce, and the complexities of living out a faith in God-concluding that the very differences dividing us might actually be what unite us within the vast definition of what it means to be human.