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Burn
"I fall headlong into everything that lights me on fire. I was born to burn".
Burn redefines modern poetry, managing to be deep, meaningful, and completely accessible all at once. This is not your "anyone could have written this" poetry book. The author's stunning command of emotion, narrative, and flow will captivate you from beginning to end. Within Burn's pages, no subjects are off limits. Self-awareness, growth, healing, power, loss, grief, and all stages of love are examined.
This is a book that stays with you long after you put it down.
If you love poetry by Whitney Hanson, Rupi Kaur, Michaela Angemeer, FS Yousaf, Shelby Leigh, Catarine Hancock, Courtney Peppernell, Grant Chemidlin, Emily Juniper, or Caitlin Kelly, you have to read "Burn"!
Burn redefines modern poetry, managing to be deep, meaningful, and completely accessible all at once. This is not your "anyone could have written this" poetry book. The author's stunning command of emotion, narrative, and flow will captivate you from beginning to end. Within Burn's pages, no subjects are off limits. Self-awareness, growth, healing, power, loss, grief, and all stages of love are examined.
This is a book that stays with you long after you put it down.
If you love poetry by Whitney Hanson, Rupi Kaur, Michaela Angemeer, FS Yousaf, Shelby Leigh, Catarine Hancock, Courtney Peppernell, Grant Chemidlin, Emily Juniper, or Caitlin Kelly, you have to read "Burn"!
- GenresPoetry
227 pages, Paperback
Published March 20, 2021
20 people are currently reading
358 people want to read
About the author
Stefanie Briar
16 books51 followersStefanie Briar is a queer 37-year-old poet and editor from New Jersey. She is known for creating powerful, relatable, accessible poetry and prose that stands out from the crowd. Her goals are to make her readers feel seen/understood and to prove that poetry is not a dead language. Aside from her own author career, she uses her university degrees and 14 years of experience teaching English to work as a freelance editor. Poets who are publishing books of their own hire her to edit and proofread their manuscripts.
Her latest release, "Iron & Velvet" (2023) quickly joined the ranks of "Surrender" (2022), "Shades of Ruin" (2022), and "Burn" (2021) as #1 bestsellers on Amazon. She also wrote "Cosmosis" and "Homecoming" back in 2020.
Authored Works:
Her debut book, "Cosmosis", a poetic journey through love/heartbreak, was released on 4/26/20. This book is a missions project where royalties are donated to anti-racism causes and organizations, such as Black Girls Code, The Loveland Foundation, and the NAACP.
Briar released her second book, "Homecoming", on 1/1/21. This book of poetry and prose chronicles healing, strength, wisdom, and finding your way back home to yourself.
"Burn", her third book, was released on 4/18/21, and became a #1 New Release. "Burn" is bold, fiery, passionate, and powerful in its poetic journey through the multitudes of life, self, and love. Most of the book's poetry uses fire metaphors, imagery, and/or allusions. Stef cites "Burn" as the book that "put her on the map" as a modern poet.
"Shades of Ruin" was released on 1/11/22, debuting as a #1 New Release in numerous categories and quickly becoming a #1 bestseller. This short collection of poems is an emotional powerhouse, more of a continuously-moving story arc than an anthology, and reads like a poetic novella. It follows a love story from the initial collision all the way up through the letting go. The writing is raw, brutal, honest, passionate, and magnificently crafted.
"Surrender" (Stefanie's personal favorite of her published works) was released on 8/12/22, her 37th birthday. It began its life as #1 New Release in 6 Amazon categories and went on to hit #1 bestseller rankings numerous times, It has surpassed "Burn" as her #1 selling book. Surrender is a celebration of healing, change, acceptance, and love. It poetically chronicles what it is to live, feel, love, grow, let go, and find peace within yourself. No topics are off limits, and this is her most diverse body of work to date. Among the subjects are:
-healing
-overcoming past trauma
-mending the heart
-putting past relationships into perspective
-self love
- personal growth
-claiming your power
-coming out as queer
-sapphic love
-letting love back in again
"Iron & Velvet" released on April 1, 2023 as an instant #1 bestseller. This book is a poetic journey through a heart breaking and then blooming. The first chapter "The Iron" chronicles heartbreak, breaking up, loss, grief, pain, and dark night of the soul. These poems are raw and will grip the soul. "The Velvet" chapter 2, details the journey back to one's center, where healing takes place. It is full of heartfelt truths, bits of wisdom, gentle reminders, sound advice, and extremely relatable poems about coming back home to yourself after your heart has been broken.
Stefanie has a growing readership of over 350,000 across her 2 platforms. She is humbled and grateful to be able to share her love of words with the world.
Her latest release, "Iron & Velvet" (2023) quickly joined the ranks of "Surrender" (2022), "Shades of Ruin" (2022), and "Burn" (2021) as #1 bestsellers on Amazon. She also wrote "Cosmosis" and "Homecoming" back in 2020.
Authored Works:
Her debut book, "Cosmosis", a poetic journey through love/heartbreak, was released on 4/26/20. This book is a missions project where royalties are donated to anti-racism causes and organizations, such as Black Girls Code, The Loveland Foundation, and the NAACP.
Briar released her second book, "Homecoming", on 1/1/21. This book of poetry and prose chronicles healing, strength, wisdom, and finding your way back home to yourself.
"Burn", her third book, was released on 4/18/21, and became a #1 New Release. "Burn" is bold, fiery, passionate, and powerful in its poetic journey through the multitudes of life, self, and love. Most of the book's poetry uses fire metaphors, imagery, and/or allusions. Stef cites "Burn" as the book that "put her on the map" as a modern poet.
"Shades of Ruin" was released on 1/11/22, debuting as a #1 New Release in numerous categories and quickly becoming a #1 bestseller. This short collection of poems is an emotional powerhouse, more of a continuously-moving story arc than an anthology, and reads like a poetic novella. It follows a love story from the initial collision all the way up through the letting go. The writing is raw, brutal, honest, passionate, and magnificently crafted.
"Surrender" (Stefanie's personal favorite of her published works) was released on 8/12/22, her 37th birthday. It began its life as #1 New Release in 6 Amazon categories and went on to hit #1 bestseller rankings numerous times, It has surpassed "Burn" as her #1 selling book. Surrender is a celebration of healing, change, acceptance, and love. It poetically chronicles what it is to live, feel, love, grow, let go, and find peace within yourself. No topics are off limits, and this is her most diverse body of work to date. Among the subjects are:
-healing
-overcoming past trauma
-mending the heart
-putting past relationships into perspective
-self love
- personal growth
-claiming your power
-coming out as queer
-sapphic love
-letting love back in again
"Iron & Velvet" released on April 1, 2023 as an instant #1 bestseller. This book is a poetic journey through a heart breaking and then blooming. The first chapter "The Iron" chronicles heartbreak, breaking up, loss, grief, pain, and dark night of the soul. These poems are raw and will grip the soul. "The Velvet" chapter 2, details the journey back to one's center, where healing takes place. It is full of heartfelt truths, bits of wisdom, gentle reminders, sound advice, and extremely relatable poems about coming back home to yourself after your heart has been broken.
Stefanie has a growing readership of over 350,000 across her 2 platforms. She is humbled and grateful to be able to share her love of words with the world.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 22, 2023
Ok so this took forever for me to finish but it’s because Stef really writes in a way that makes me have to be in a certain mood to be able to 1000% throw myself into her work. I’ve never really read much poetry that has such a strong voice if that makes any sense? It’s not the typical poetry that had the cliche repeating poems.
Can’t wait for her new book to come out 💘
Can’t wait for her new book to come out 💘
August 5, 2025
Repetitive, clichéd, and could have benefitted from a good editor.
Heavy use of
t
e
x
t
s h a p i n g
over strong poetic skill. But also not the worst poetry I've ever read.
Heavy use of
t
e
x
t
s h a p i n g
over strong poetic skill. But also not the worst poetry I've ever read.
September 17, 2024
3.5 stars. Honestly i think i might be younger than the intended audience, so i found some of the poems to be a bit cringey and telling of the millennial author. I picked up this book at a thrift store for a couple dollars and i dont regret it. It’s not the best poetry you will ever read (i dont think i will ever be able to say the opposite about anything tbh) but then again it’s by far the worst. I think it’s very shallow at times with its sort of “girl boss”/“girl power” messaging and its even harder to read the invented words that have fuck in it but overall the fire/burning related language felt very inspiring and creative. I thought the author would use the same metaphors everyone uses, but i was left feeling very happy with her creativity and it gave me inspiration for when writing my own essays and what not. Overall, it was a very interesting and enjoyable read that ive left tabs on multiple pages that seemed worth another read when im feeling down.
May 8, 2021
Am I biased and giving a five-star rating because I know the author and copy-edited this book? Nope! We agree to disagree on her formatting, which drives me up a wall. What you’re here for is the words, and there are so many of them worth diving in for. The superficial - the cover is unreal, and gorgeous. The font choices fit well, and I like most of the illustrations. But the words, the thoughts - that’s what you’ll fall in love with. Personal favorites - Tides, Wildflowers, Trickster, The Phoenix and The Dove, Roots, In The Bones, and Madness.
”Ruin me, crush me, break my bones.
I don’t care, just take me home.
Darling, it’s so sad but true,
I’m better when I’m
mad
for
you.”
- Madness
”Ruin me, crush me, break my bones.
I don’t care, just take me home.
Darling, it’s so sad but true,
I’m better when I’m
mad
for
you.”
- Madness
December 27, 2024
I could barely focus on the meaning of the poems due to the egregious overuse of cliched poetic formatting that was in almost every single poem. I would have loved to take in the words, the meaning, the fire of these poems, yet the formatting was far too distracting. Random words are written like t h i s and like
t
h
i
s
in all but a rare few poems. It comes off like the author is new to poetry, throwing in as much stereotypical shaping as possible to make the work read more “poetically” rather than as her being a poet making conscious, carefully chosen enhancements. I would have DNFed this if not for my limited time frame of meeting my reading challenge.
t
h
i
s
in all but a rare few poems. It comes off like the author is new to poetry, throwing in as much stereotypical shaping as possible to make the work read more “poetically” rather than as her being a poet making conscious, carefully chosen enhancements. I would have DNFed this if not for my limited time frame of meeting my reading challenge.
October 9, 2022
Some of the poems were good, but a lot of them were kinda cheesy and dramatic. The format was a bit weird for some. And to me-there wasn’t really a flow between poem to poem. I’ve read some poetry books that have had a really good flow to them. This one just didn’t have it.
I bought this because one of her TikTok’s advertising it with one of the poems ended up on my FYP last year. I wish I could find it again cause it really made it enticing.
If this is your cup of tea, good on you. It just isn’t mine.
I bought this because one of her TikTok’s advertising it with one of the poems ended up on my FYP last year. I wish I could find it again cause it really made it enticing.
If this is your cup of tea, good on you. It just isn’t mine.
May 3, 2021
One of my favourite books of 2021
May 29, 2021
Stefanie is by and far among my favorite Poetess’, even as I know she will cringe when reading this, I smile knowing this review will now live on in infamy.
But on a more serious note, this is my favorite book by Stef. The writing hits hard and there is such an amazing truth to what she writes. She has an amazing way with words and draws you in with every piece.
I would highly recommend any of her books, but if I had to choose one, this one would be it.
But on a more serious note, this is my favorite book by Stef. The writing hits hard and there is such an amazing truth to what she writes. She has an amazing way with words and draws you in with every piece.
I would highly recommend any of her books, but if I had to choose one, this one would be it.
June 4, 2021
Briar's poetry depicts perfectly what I have felt through life. The emotions this book awakes grips you poems after poems. My favorite, WOMAN, brought tears into my eyes. I totally fell in love with Briar's words and loved the way she plays with them.
September 19, 2021
a flawless collection of poetry!
February 23, 2022
If you like Rupi Kaur this is a good read
July 28, 2022
Gives me the inside felling
May 27, 2023
The only reason I took a little long to finish this (more than your average poetry book) was mostly because of the font. Her words were precise and deep, other than the font I love her work!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews