Almost Crimson

CECE HAS SPENT HER LIFE coloring inside the lines-trying to stay small, stay steady, and stay invisible within the shadow of her mother’s unrelenting sadness, a force she quietly calls the Sad. Raised in a world shaped by depression, poverty, and silence, CeCe becomes a master at survival-but not at living.

In Almost Crimson, Dasha Kelly delivers a lyrical and deeply human portrait of a young woman on the cusp of becoming her full self. As CeCe unravels the inherited tangle of guilt, loyalty, and longing, she begins to question: Who is she without the weight of her past? And what does it mean to choose joy for yourself when sorrow has always been your home?

Poignant, poetic, and fiercely honest, Almost Crimson is a story of generational trauma, quiet resilience, and the transformative power of self-definition. For anyone who has ever had to unlearn how they were taught to love-this is your book.

DASHA KELLY is a writer, performance artist, and creative change agent. A former Poet Laureate for Milwaukee and Wisconsin, she is a National Laureate Fellow with the Academy of American Poets and an alum of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. As a mainstage storyteller with The Moth and creator of the touring show Makin’ Cake, she sparks dialogue on race, class, and equity. She has served as a U.S. Embassy Arts Envoy and founded Still Waters Collective, a nonprofit uplifting community voices for 25 years.