Why Fathers Cry at Night: A Memoir in Love Poems, Recipes, Letters, and Remembrances (HC) (2023)

A new memoir and collection of love poems by New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Medalist winner Kwame Alexander.

In a powerfully intimate and non-traditional (or "new-fashioned") memoir, Kwame Alexander shares snapshots of a man learning how to love. He takes us through stories of his parents: from being awkward newlyweds in the sticky Chicago summer of 1967, to the sometimes-confusing ways they showed their love for him. He explores his own relationships--his difficulties as a newly wedded, 22-year-old father, and the precariousness of his early marriage working in a jazz club with his first second wife. Alexander attempts to deal with the grief of his mother's recent passing and shares the solace he found in learning how to perfect her famous fried chicken dish. With an open heart, Alexander weaves together memories of his past to try and understand his greatest love: his daughters.

Full of heartfelt reminisces, family recipes, love poems, and personal letters, Why Fathers Cry at Night inspires bravery and vulnerability in every reader who has experienced the reckless passion, heartbreak, failure and joy that define the whirlwind woes and wonders of love.