“All the Things Left Unsaid” is a poetry book being published on June 21 by sophomore Zubia Mohammed, whose pronouns are they/he. It’s a collection of poems centering around heartbreak, first love, family issues, peer pressure, and friendships, they said.
The book started off as a collection of poems and letters saying everything he wished he had told them, Mohammed said. They had been working on the poems since 2019, they said, but, they’d shown an interest in poetry long before then.
“Ever since I was young, I felt like I had these emotions that I wanted to tell people, but I didn’t know how to word them properly,” Mohammed said. “So I wrote little songs, or later on I figured out they were poems … there was this poet that we read about in fifth grade. And she really got me started in my poetry journey. Another person was my language arts teacher in sixth grade. And she had this huge poetry unit. And we would have to write like a poem or two every day, and I would always write extra poems and get extra credit for it because I loved poetry.”
Mohammed decided to publish their work because their friends and family have constantly encouraged them to, they said. They published the book themselves, and readers can find it at Barnes and Noble once it has been officially published. Mohammed said the process of self-publishing was stressful.
“It’s really like you are the writer; you are the editor,” Mohammed said. “You have to decide the cover art as well. You do everything really by yourself, so it’s pretty stressful because even the formatting is all based on you rather than a publisher.”
They didn’t do everything alone though because they did ask a friend to design the cover, Mohammed said. His greatest difficulty in publishing was compiling all of his poetry for the book, they said. But of course, there are always rewards in doing something like publishing a book, they added.
“Realizing that I’m actually going to get published and having random people that I’ve never talked to before come up to me, and ask how they can buy my book, that was definitely the most rewarding part of the process,” Mohammed said.
Mohammed’s advice to fellow writers and poets is to just write what you want, he said.
“Write whatever you’re feeling and don’t think that anything you’re writing is stupid,” Mohammed said. “A lot of what I struggled with when I first started writing poetry and realizing that I was going to publish it is that ‘No one’s going to want to read this.No one’s going to find this interesting.’ But someone out there will be interested in your writing. And it’s one of those things where it’s not raw talent. You have to work at it, and if you are committed to writing, you will make it.”
Mohammed plans to publish more books in the future and has already started on his second collection of poems as well as a screenplay. But, as for this book, Mohammed hopes that it can help others feel less alone, he said.
“Honestly, a lot of these things are things that I wish I told myself when I was younger,” Mohammed said. “And if any one person can resonate with what I went through last year, or just in general, and they feel like they’re not alone, then I’m glad, it doesn’t matter how many copies are sold.”