Conjuring the Hurricane

Winner of the 2026 International Book Award for Best Contemporary Poetry. Recipient of the 2026 IPPY Outstanding Book of the Year. Named one of Ms. Magazine's Best Poetry Books of both 2025 and 2026.

"The best way to save your life is any way you can."

Sarah Hanson didn't leave because she had a perfect plan. She left because staying had become more dangerous than the unknown.

Conjuring the Hurricane is an award-winning memoir-in-verse about domestic abuse, childhood trauma, sisterhood, grief, forbidden love, and the quiet courage required to begin again. Told through seventy-seven interconnected poems, it traces the long journey from surviving a life that no longer fits to building one that finally does.

Written in fragments that mirror the way trauma is remembered, these poems illuminate the moments we often dismiss: the red flags we explain away, the stories we inherit, the people who help us stay alive, and the impossible decisions that slowly become possible.

But this is not only a story about abuse. It is a story about permission. Permission to trust yourself. Permission to leave. Permission to disappoint people who benefit from your silence. Permission to become someone your younger self would recognize as safe.

Whether you're rebuilding after domestic violence, questioning a relationship that no longer feels like home, grieving the life you imagined, or simply searching for the courage to choose yourself, Conjuring the Hurricane offers both witness and hope.

For anyone who has ever asked:
How did I get here?
How do I get out?

This book is a permission slip.
Not for the perfect exit.
For the one that saves you.