Golden Brown Skin by S.C. Says

Now available, the first collection of poetry by S.C. Says! 

What people are saying!

“Golden Brown Skin creates a raw, uncomfortable, yet relatable and captivating story of life. There’s challenge and hope in the love we share, in the mental health we struggle to balance, in the inequity so many of us face. There’s a genuine connection where readers will find themselves and know what it means to also want their bruises, covert or otherwise, to go unseen, much like the author. Then despite the turmoil, there’s a beautiful persistence to keep appearing and a big dose of hope. Hope for the author’s story… and hope for the reader’s story, because after all, it’s a masterful articulation of the human story.”

– Heather Vaughn

 Associate Director, The Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life

“From start to finish, we read along as the poet grows into himself. The best parts are where we find the authenticity he weaves into every poem; in between the lines where we surprisingly also find ourselves. SC’s debut is not a book, it is a friend for life.”

– Jomar Valentin

Slam Master, Austin Poetry Slam 

“S.C. Says is the poet so many of us need right now. In an increasingly dissonant world with divisive speech, he invites his readers and listeners into a rhythmic language landscape; one that is vivid, authentic, and vulnerable.  He writes tenderly about mental health and ultimately humanizes the experience of depression through his balance of what he says and what he lets rest in his pauses. With both candor and pointed humor, he crafts narratives that illustrate the racism and hypocrisy in our complex country, while always returning to the empathy that remedies pain, on his next line, or his next poem. To read S.C. Says’s work is to feel the presence of a close, loving friend offering his hand. ”

– Stephanie Hanzel Cohen, 

Stephen Crane Lecture Series Coordinator, The Penntonian 

"A book I couldn't stop reading once I started. S.C. Says has a way using simplicity, honesty, and powerful metaphors that make you relate to every sentence, every emotion, and every poem. His vulnerability comes across as brave-honesty. He captures cultural scenarios(being black & fitting in, depression), finds self-reflection in his personal events(relationships with self and those around him), and shares that brutal-self-truth we all hide within. His openness and clever writing skills makes you want to close the book, find him, and thank him personally for crafting gold. Golden Brown Skin will sit on my coffee table for all my friends to pick up and read "

- Ignation (Iggy) Mwela

National Poetry Slam Champion, Co-Founder of COMETRY