A Softer Kind of Audacity is an unflinching self-examination. Author Jess Whetsel's poetry debut is "a book is for the little girl with wild curls and a poem in her heart; the teenager who scribbled lyrics in her notebook like her life depended on it; the twenty-something who swallowed her voice and didn't think she'd ever write again; and the woman who finally came home to her poetry, her voice, herself." Exploring themes of queerness, mental health, and generational trauma, Whetsel opens the door wide and invites everyone in.