Author of the Month: Antoinette Amos

Antoinette Amos knows the power of writing. At the age of 12, she received her first journal, which proved to be a blessing. A child of substance abuse, writing poetry became a safe outlet for her thoughts and feelings.

“I swear that journal saved my life,” the Buffalo native revealed during a recent interview. “And it helped to heal me, so I decided to pay it forward.”

Amos decided to give back by publishing her book, Message from the Hearts of Children on High: A Collection of Poems Reflecting the Feelings of Children of Substance Abuse. For 20 years, she’d been working with socioeconomically disadvantaged children and families — including many affected by substance abuse — and could not ignore a heartbreaking pattern.

“I decided I needed to get some stories off my heart,” she told us. “So I started writing poetry and noticing that there was a similar thread that went through all of our lives, our stories sounded the same. And when I was finished, it ended up being a book.”

Amos hopes the book will serve as an inspiration and source of encouragement for children of substance abusers, whom she affectionately refers to as “children on high.”

“What I’m hoping we get out of it is the understanding that there’s hope and healing,” she said. “We don’t have to be victims of our past. We can choose to either lie beneath it or stand up, and that’s what I chose to do. I want to be an inspiration for some of the other children out there who are battling and going through the same obstacles.”

And the book isn’t only meant to foster understanding in children, but in their parents too.

“I want the parents to understand our view from our experience,” she explained, “because it affects generations. Every decision that we as parents make has an impact on our children, and I think we fail to realize that.”

Amos is an advocate of journaling and believes in the importance of getting feelings out by writing them down. In fact, one of her favorite parts of her book is its journaling space.

“My favorite part will be when children on high start writing in the journaling pages and sharing some of those stories,” Amos revealed.

The official book launch of Message from the Hearts of Children on High is Thursday, July 26, at the Hyatt, 5:30-7:30 pm. The event is free of charge. The book is also available for purchase on Amazon.

About Will Jones

publisher and writer for BlackWNY

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