When McKenna Graf ‘26 arrived at Lafayette College, she already had a goal in mind: to publish one book of poetry every year. Her second book —“Mortals, Myths, and Maybes” — was published this past June.
Graf said the poems in her latest book represent the period of her life from February to December of 2023.
“It is a time capsule of who I was as a writer at that time, and it’s going to look completely different when I try to do the next one because of classes I’ve taken at Lafayette, or experiences I’ve had over the summer,” Graf explained.
Graf self-published her first poetry book “writing over the word limit” in 2023 as a product of a 21-day writing challenge completed over her freshman year winter break.
“I hate every single poem in there, except maybe the last one, but again, it was just such a different time of my life,” Graf said. “I’m still immensely proud of the fact that I was like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna do this actually.’”
Though “writing over the word limit” and “Mortals, Myths, and Maybes” have been emotional outlets for Graf, she has not always found solace in poetry.
“I thought that there was only one way that you could do it,” Graf said of writing poetry.
A high school poetry unit led Graf to the work of poet E. E. Cummings, who shifted her idea of the power of poems. When challenged to write a poem of her own, Graf chose to explore her anxiety.
“That was one of the first things that really calmed me down,” she said.
Seeing her first book in print gave Graf the confidence necessary to aim higher for her next publication. After crafting a manuscript and receiving edits independently, Graf reached out to Darrel Parry, a published poet and the assistant store manager of the Lafayette College Store, whose poetry book she had purchased. Parry connected her to Angel Akerman ’13 of Parisian Phoenix Publishing.
Akerman fondly recalled Graf’s clear determination and organization from their first meeting.
“[Graf] is bright, ambitious and talented. [She] did all of her own legwork, all the right way,” Akerman said. “She decided, ‘I want to have this out for June.’ I said, ‘Okay, great, this is what we need to do to meet that.’”
Through working with a publisher, Graf was able to format and design her book while learning the nuances of the publishing business. Alongside finalizing the book itself, preparing for the release also involved promotion, including a self-organized book tour.
“It’s the getting out there and making connections’s part of writing that most young authors often don’t expect, but McKenna is embracing that aspect of publishing and taking it on full steam,” Parry wrote in an email.
Soon after the book’s release on June 21, Graf read excerpts of her book at a Barnes and Noble in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, as well as her local library. Later in the summer, also Graf had the opportunity to read at the Barnes and Noble in the Upper East Side of New York City.
“I was so nervous. I pretended that I was Carrie Bradshaw or Blair Waldorf the whole time,” Graf said of the experience, citing popular New York City-inhabiting television characters. “I really tried to make myself excited about it, because I was really scared. But I did it. It was really, really fun.”
Graf plans on continuing to promote her newest book and work on her next poetry collection, which will build upon her past exploration of the connection between poetry and filmmaking.
“I always have a goal to make a book longer or maybe organized differently — to try something different in terms of the actual work that I’m writing,” Graf said.
“I become addicted to the book readings, as much as they scare me,” she added.