Future Tense

by Kelly Grace Thomas

Reckoning with infertility, adoption, and love under pressure, Kelly Grace Thomas’s Future Tense is a searing memoir-in-verse about a woman’s fight to become a mother while losing her own.

Thomas spends three years trying for a child who never arrives. As she struggles with infertility, her mother is dying of Stage IV uterine cancer, and the desire for a child turns urgent—a countdown. As her mother’s health deteriorates, time narrows, pressure builds, and the clock refuses to slow. As her marriage strains and the world remakes itself without her, Thomas refuses to give up. The fertility clinic is the coldest place on earth; still, she keeps going—through years of medical gaslighting, IVF consults, mounting debt, and backhanded blame—finally welcoming her daughter through adoption just months before her mother’s death.

Intimate and unflinching, Future Tense interrogates the intertwined joys and griefs of womanhood and motherhood—and how biology can sometimes turn against us. Thomas approaches illness and loss with clarity and care, writing with a generosity that welcomes listeners in. Despite their brevity, these poems refuse despair, finding meaning and connection even in the hardest seasons of life.

Genres: Poetry

Audible Audio

Published October 13, 2026

About the author

KELLY GRACE THOMAS, poet, writer, and coach, is the author of Future Tense (forthcoming from Alice James Books, 2026) and Boat Burned (YesYes Books, 2020). She is the winner of the Jane Underwood Poetry Prize and the Neil Postman Award for Metaphor. Kelly’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in: The Sun, The Adroit Journal, 32 Poems, Los Angeles Review, Sixth Finch, and elsewhere. She is also co-author of poetry curricula including Voices in Verse: Poetry, Identity, and Ethnic Studies, Stanzas of America: Celebrating BIPOC Poetry, and Words Ignite: Explore, Write, and Perform Classic and Spoken Word Poetry (Get Lit), which are currently taught in the Los Angeles Unified School District. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Randolph College.www.kellygracethomas.com

Reviews

[Christina Knueven · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put this book down. I have never read a book of poetry as fast as this—it’s propulsive even as it begs to be savored. Which is to say that it never ever sacrifices music or language in favor of speed. It just somehow accomplishes both! Truly a memoir in verse, it tells a cohesive story from beginning to end, and the emotional arc of the book is outstanding. I also loved the variety of form. There are a couple erasure poems as well as poems that incorporate actual doctor notes, another that incorporates interview questions. Overall just a stunning work of art that I will return to again and again.

*I received an ARC of this book from the author!*

[Lexie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most achingly beautiful books I’ve read. I couldn’t put it down once I started, and wept for the last 20 pages. This is more than a collection of poems, it’s a memoir of longing, loss, love, and the messy inbetween. I was deeply moved by the way Kelly placed herself on the page so honestly, and gave us every damn thing. What a gift to behold such an intimate portrait of marriage, of loss, of woman.

I want to recommend this to everyone, not only those who I think will feel seen or relate to her experience, but for every soul to witness the human experience and the way both grief and love can morph again and again and again.

[Maria Caponi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in one sitting, and the words made me tear up, and I'm not usually very emotional. I believe there is, in this book, a story for every woman. The core of who we are. The wants that might never happen, and the ones handed to us that we never wanted to want. It shows vulnerability, honesty, and truth without mush, on issues that are difficult to put on a page, more so on a public one. I would recommend this book to all those who want to be mothers and to those who do not want to be. And also to their partners to understand what it takes to be a woman sometimes.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this collection in one reading. Just a truly wise and beautiful depiction of the circle of life, the pain of loss, the pain and beauty of hope, and love’s legacy across generations. The writing was gorgeous, and I was deeply captivated, from the first poem to the last. I especially recommend this was for anyone who has struggled or is struggling with fertility.

[Cheryl Klein · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm an adoptive mom who struggled with infertility and lost my own mom too soon, so I'm the target audience for this book, and as such did some ugly crying while reading it. I think I can objectively (whatever that means) say it's a good book, too. (Having been through similar experiences also makes me extra picky about how people talk about them.) Each poem stands on its own while also serving the narrative. I was especially struck by the erasure poem Thomas made from the "Dear Birth Mother" letter they wrote as part of the adoption process. Those things are so fraught, and Thomas boils it down to its essence, the truths behind the marketing. Adoptive parents are often encouraged to grieve their fertility so that they don't dump that baggage on their child; in capturing a grief that can often feel intangible, catastrophic, and lonely AF, Thomas offers what such a process might look like, while threading it with hope and building a community of mothers who have struggled to wear the title.

[Jaime Jacques · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Thomas's work for years, and this newest book did not disappoint. I couldn't put it down and was amazed at how she so deftly distills such complex emotions down to their essence. She looks grief in the face doesn't flinch, all in the name of love. Highly recommend!

[Nicole Dalcourt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This poetry collection is deeply moving. Through its intimate and unflinching poems, the collection reveals the emotional territory shared between infertility and dying. There is a striking tension between beginnings and endings throughout the collection. Infertility is often associated with the desire to create life, while cancer and death force an individual and their loved ones to confront its limits. This is a must read!

[Kristi Griffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book takes two of life’s difficulties and weaves them together seamlessly into a story of longing, loss, and love. Sharing the story of watching her mother wither while fighting relentlessly to create life, Kelly Grace Thomas shows us her vulnerabilities in a new way. Yet, somehow, between all the grief we still see her love of life shining through. This book brought tears to my eyes on multiple occasions. It’s a must read for anyone struggling with infertility, grieving over a loved one who’s losing time, or anyone looking for some damn good poems!

*I received an ARC of this book from the author.

[Mildred Ford · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an advance reader copy of this book from the author and am leaving a review voluntarily.

Future Tense takes us on a gut-wrenching personal journey. It’s been a long time since I read a book of poetry for pleasure, and I couldn’t put this one down. The book pulled me through, from the cracking of breakfast eggs to wishing for the kindness of strawberries. The writing reflects the subject matter, combines deep feeling with fact, and witnesses a narrator wrestling with the toll her life-long dream is taking on her marriage. Beautiful imagery I won’t forget. Thank you Kelly for sharing this story with the world.

[Caitlin Conlon · Rating 5 out of 5]

FUTURE TENSE is of the most powerful narrative poetry collections I’ve ever read. Thomas’s collection is clean and sharp and laden with love. More than just a group of well-crafted poems, Thomas really brings you through a complete story from beginning to end. I was completely immersed.

I believe this is a book anybody could read and enjoy regardless of their background or familiarity with poetry, but I’d recommend it specifically to mothers, and those that have dealt with fertility issues.

*I received an ARC of this collection from the publisher!*

[Shellie Kalinsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Future Tense is Kelly Grace Thomas's third book and chronicles the inverse life journeys of her mother's cancer diagnosis/ treatment with Thomas and her husband's attempt to have a child. Her memoir in poems takes multiple forms, with each poem structured to compliment the story being told. In Year One, "Every Cycle, My Period Doesn't Come" the poem begins with a fully inked line, but with spacing that suggests an uncertainty in the narrator. As the narrator reveals that she has built an altar in the corner of her house to beg for a future pregnancy and child, the words continue to sprawl down and across the page, spreading farther apart to become faint, just like the narrator's menstrual cycle is faint and does not come. The book is divided into four parts: One Year In, Two Years In, Three Years In, and Future. Each section has a different mood, a different type of yearning, and a different outcome. Even with this honest poem in the beginning of her book, I wondered if Thomas would withhold some of her personal challenges when writing her poetry. But all my doubt was removed midway through Year Two, "Omid And I Argue Over IVF" when it becomes clear that Thomas is telling her readers everything. She delivers the devastating line after seeing the accupuncturist:
If god wants you to have a baby, he will
give you one. I pay for her cruelty.
This verse just gutted me. For sure Thomas paid so many ways.
In the following poem, "Diagnosis," she begins with "They found something, Mom said over the phone." Later in Year Two's "No Guarantees," they "...speak in dark futures. / This fight follows..." and the toll on their marriage is clear: "Our marriage flickers, a bulb / burning out." (her white space is much grander than what I can do in this review). And in Year Three the "Dear Birth" and other erasure poems taken from letters written to potential birth mothers at the direction of the adoption agency are equally filled with yearning, desperation, and hope. And I will leave the rest of the poems unmentioned so as not to ruin the ending of the book.
My point is that Thomas writes with equal passion, wonder, pain and growth through the entire book. You can feel the fear of what might happen to her mother, and what might happen if Thomas cannot have a baby, and how her mother and her desire to mother are intertwined. An honest, heartbreaking account of what it is like to try to carry on like normal when your own body betrays you.

[Courtney LeBlanc · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gorgeous collection of poems about family, infertility, love, loss, and hope.

from Almost Forty: "This month I failed / the future. Every day: // a field where want / continues to bleed. I check // the locks. Every month the warden / cuts a new key. I shove my prayers // under her door. She never writes / back. I know nothing."

from Feartility: "A body so bankrupt / not even capitalism / could save it. // Every cycle, a small / funeral. I paid / for them all."

from Nothing Roots: "We chase a future / we cannot birth. Maybe / if it was only me: a no-one bride / of blood and blame. But bees / are dying. Birds dropping. The ocean pregnant / with plastic. The rodents / returning each disease. / We made a mess / of family. Browning prayers / plotted in thirsty fields. Still, nothing / roots. Perhaps we got used / to how common dying feels / in our speech."

from Grammar (of Apology): "I practice tender / in the mirror. Quiet // my hips, curved / like a quotation mark. // Bless, bless bless / these elbows and anxiety. // All these brackets and bones. / Body, I walked to the shore // to say I'm sorry for the distance. / Maybe I just needed to write you // from some new place."

[Emma Goldman-Sherman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant beautiful and necessary book! As a person who struggled with infertility, and as a person who lost my own mother and still struggles with the grief of that loss, I recommend this book with the highest possible marks. Kelly Grace Thomas gives shape and substance to these struggles and much more. The poems in this collection are ranged into four chronological sections that lead us from infertility and diagnoses through the difficult living that is required of those who want to give "all this sun we saved." A collection of tense, lyrical poems that form a narrative of love for what the body can do and grief for the ways it fails; a collection that confronts the hardest questions like how to face death, loss, the possibilities of living with emptiness, and how to live with so much desire. For those of us who want or wanted to make room for more life in a "bitter forest. / Pined for a future to plant." MUST READ!

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection is impeccable. It brings you through the emotions and struggle of trying for a parenthood. She captured so beautifully the ache of a mother who is not yet and may never be. I found it to be insightful and grounded. Each poem pulled you forward, yet still gave a singular snapshot that was powerful. Several poems just had me bawling. I had to give myself a week or so before writing this just to compose myself. Treacherously human and beautiful. Will read again and again. (Plus, I am a huge sucker for good poetry and Kelly has some serious chops!)

[Alicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been looking forward to reading this book after reading one of the poems from the book this past summer. I couldn't put the book down. It was a beautiful and heartbreaking journey around motherhood -- struggling to become a mother whole losing a mother. Sometimes it's shocking how our hearts can break wide open and still find a way to create beauty.

[Haley Direnzo · Rating 5 out of 5]

So thrilled to have gotten to read this early and can't wait to hold the physical book in my hands. Stunning, beautiful, heartbreaking, hopeful. Moved me to tears and is full of craft and poems that sing.

[Bridget Tishler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, delicious, thought provoking book of poetry. Highly recommend for anyone going through fertility struggles.