New Poetry Collection Trigger Warning: The Formative Years Exposes the Quiet Realities of Trauma and the Lifesaving Power of Having a Voice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Sean Taylor (www.taylorversebooks.com)

New Poetry Collection Trigger Warning: The Formative Years Exposes the Quiet Realities of Trauma and the Lifesaving Power of Having a Voice

Atlanta, Ga. — March, 2026 — In a genre often associated with softness, comfort, and lyrical beauty, poet Brittany Wilcox breaks the mold. Her new poetry collection, Trigger Warning: The Formative Years, is not gentle—and it isn’t meant to be.

This electrifying debut leans into the uncomfortable truths of trauma, emotional suppression, and survival. It is raw. It is dark. It is unflinchingly real. And for Wilcox, it is the story of how poetry became her safe space.

“Poetry is supposed to be subtle, soft, cozy, and make you feel good, right? Wrong,” publisher Sean Taylor asserts. “The best poetry challenges… The best poetry crawls into your brain.”

Wilcox didn’t choose poetry to be an artist. She wrote it to survive.

“I don’t really know that it affects my voice as a poet so much as it is the only voice I had for the first 30-plus years of my life,” she explains. “Growing up, I wasn’t allowed to express my own emotions, thoughts, or feelings.”

Through therapy, she learned that what she endured was trauma—an experience that left her suffering in silence.

“My perspective in this book is as someone who had nobody to save them and yet so desperately wanted at least one adult to notice,” Wilcox says. “I don’t think I would be alive today without this outlet I discovered as a child.”

Poetry became her sanctuary: “Poetry was safe because it was something my mother couldn’t decode. Or if she did, I could lie about what the poem was about. In this way, I was able to secretly express my grievances without getting into trouble.”

Writing the book was one emotional challenge; releasing it into the world is another.

“It’s a very vulnerable experience because this is my life for the past 30 plus years that I am releasing out into the wild,” Wilcox says. “People can interpret it however they want and criticize it however they want.”

But for the author, indifference is far more frightening than criticism.

“I’m okay with you hating it. But ignoring it? Not being interested at all? That’s isolating in the most soul‑crushing way.”

Wilcox, a professional nanny and passionate equestrian originally from North Georgia, has been writing poetry since childhood as a means of emotional expression. Now a mental health advocate, she still navigates life with a dissociative disorder—something that complicated the writing process.

“When I rediscover something sad or traumatic that I wrote, it can be deeply upsetting or jarring,” she says. “I had to put myself through a lot to get this thing together, so I hope it’s not in vain.”

A portion of proceeds from the sale of all books in the Trigger Warning series will be split between two different charities: Crossnore Communities for Children and 15/10 charity. 

About Trigger Warning: The Formative Years

This collection is not simply poetry—it is testimony. It is the record of a child surviving in silence, a teenager learning to hide truths in verse, and an adult finding the courage to unveil decades of unspoken pain. Though the poems confront trauma head-on, they also offer something unexpected: the possibility of healing. Trigger Warning: The Formative Years is not a manuscript of wounds—it is a roadmap out of them.

Available from Amazon (print, ebook) and from Taylorverse Books.

About Taylorverse Books

Taylorverse Books brings readers exciting adventure stories, contemporary and charged poetry, and non-fiction books about writing and reading. For more information, visit www.taylorversebooks.com.