AIM Higher, Inc. Announces the Release of Authentic Embellishments by Joshua Davis

AIM Higher, Inc., a nonprofit publisher dedicated to elevating powerful and transformative voices, proudly announces the release of Authentic Embellishments: Fragments of a Life Saved by Poetry, a hybrid work of prose poetry, memoir, and essay by acclaimed poet and author Joshua Davis. This is the fifth title published by AIM Higher, Inc., marking another milestone in the organization’s mission to amplify literary works that challenge, inspire, and heal.

In Authentic Embellishments, Davis artfully traverses paths of personal trauma, chronic illness, and identity, exploring how language and lyricism become acts of survival. The work is a tapestry of fragments—portraits of family, love, loss, and resilience—woven together with precision and heart. Poetry emerges not as a solution to suffering, but as a companion and witness to it.

“Josh Davis’s Authentic Embellishments is a poet’s memoir—a testament of survival despite all the things that threaten the poet’s body and spirit,” says Rajiv Mohabir, author of Whale Aria. “In these formally queer and inviting pages: magick, poetry...Josh Davis is a writer and a poet whose work is determined and fierce.”

Jennifer Murvin, author of She Says, adds: “These flash essays are lightning just outside its windows... To enter this dollhouse is to leave changed, moved by the author’s revelations of both art and self.”

Throughout the memoir, literary figures such as Lucille Clifton and Ruth Stone appear as luminous guides, offering solace and strength in the darkest moments. What begins as an exploration of survival gradually transforms into a bid for connection, belonging, and creative reclamation.

Joshua Davis is the author of Reversal Spells in Blue and Black (Seven Kitchens Press) and co-author of Chorus for the Kill and fiery poppies bruising their own throats. A former John and Renee Grisham Fellow, Davis holds MFAs from the University of Mississippi and Stonecoast at the University of Southern Maine. He teaches high school near Tampa, Florida, and mentors emerging writers through The Poetry Barn.

Authentic Embellishments: Fragments of a Life Saved by Poetry is now available through AIM Higher, Inc. and select booksellers.