Author Interview: Knocking on Windows by Jeannine Atkins

In Knocking on Windows, Jeannine Atkins blends memoir and poetry to explore her personal journey and the profound impact of female literary icons like Sylvia Plath, Maya Angelou, and Emily Dickinson. In our interview, she opens up about how these writers shaped her during a vulnerable time in her life, and how writing in verse allowed her to process her memories in a way that felt true to her. We dive into the themes of strength, vulnerability, and the quiet power of words in her story. Read on to discover how this memoir-in-verse can resonate with anyone navigating their own path of self-discovery, survival, and healing and pick up Knocking on Windows, out next Tuesday.

Knocking on Windows: A Memoir

by Jeannine Atkins
on August 5, 2025
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Acclaimed author Jeannine Atkins revisits her past in this brave and powerful memoir-in-verse about memory, healing, and finding her voice as a writer, perfect for fans of Amber Smith and Speak.

Night darkens the window to mirror.
I’m back in my old bedroom.

Six weeks after the start of her freshman year of college, Jeannine Atkins finds herself back in her childhood bedroom after an unimaginable trauma. Now home in Massachusetts, she’s struggling to reclaim her life and her voice. Seeking comfort in the words of women, she turns to the lives and stories of Sylvia Plath, Maya Angelou, and Emily Dickinson. Through raw and poignant letter-poems addressed to these literary giants, Jeannine finds that the process of writing and reflecting has become not only a means of survival but the catalyst for a burgeoning writing career.

Inspired and ready to move forward, she enrolls in her state university, where she feeds her growing passion for writing in fiction seminars. But she finds that she’s unable to escape the pervasive misogyny of her classmates and professors, who challenge her to assert her own voice against a backdrop of disbelief and minimalization. This time, though, Jeannine is not willing to go down without a fight.

A searingly honest memoir told through gorgeous verse, Knocking on Windows stands as a beacon of hope and a celebration of the enduring spirit of survivors of sexual assault—and of writers.

Interview with Jeannine Atkins

Knocking on Windows is both a memoir and a letter to the women writers who helped shape you. What drew you to Sylvia Plath, Maya Angelou, and Emily Dickinson as guiding voices during such a vulnerable chapter in your life?

I was attracted to the strength of these writers, but also how they were vulnerable, willing to show missteps. I wanted to write back thanking them for showing me both who I might become and the ways I’m different. These great women made it seem possible to be honest, and also confused, together.

Memoir-in-verse is such a unique and intimate format. How did writing in poetry rather than prose help you process and reflect on your experiences in a way that felt true to you?

Memory comes to me in pieces, so fits with poems that don’t necessarily have clear beginnings, middles or endings. Poems may invite us to enter just where we are. Often they nudge us to reread, coming around again, the way I did revisiting the past and finding ways that one moment related to others. Those connections me made me feel less alone.

This story holds so much quiet strength. What do you hope young readers, especially survivors or aspiring writers, feel or carry with them after reading your journey in Knocking on Windows?

Thank you for recognizing quiet strength, which isn’t always easy to see in ourselves or others. I hope readers will find their own ways to wield words to break down small walls. As I say in the memoir: “To write is to find the courage to claim that we matter.” Go forth!