About The Last Five Years

About The Last Five Years is an autobiographical collection of poems that reflects the author's journey following the end of a physically abusive relationship and the resulting internal and external struggles she fought through on the journey to healing.

In this collection of poems April opens up her personal notebook and allows the audience a look into the most intimate moments of her life over the last five years. In this chronological look at the years between 2017-2021, April describes the darkest and the lightest moments of her healing journey after escaping a physically violent intimate relationship. The highs in this story are rivaled by intense lows as April navigates the complex feelings of loss, hopelessness, freedom, empowerment, and destruction, both her own and society's. About The Last Five Years is a personal look into the overlooked side of the domestic violence story, taking the opportunity to highlight the more taboo feelings of a victim, as well as the way outside factors exacerbate those feelings.

April Brown is the poet, writer, and one of the illustrators of the autobiographical poetry book About The Last Five Years. With a Bachelors of Arts in Creative Writing, April's work is not only personal and heartfelt but reflective of her time in formal education. Her unique experience of going through school while writing this book adds a layer to the story that shows not only her progress within herself, but as a writer and poet as well. April is a proud survivor of domestic violence and has harnessed the struggles and strengths she has encountered and developed along the way in order to create a moving tale about her own journey through trauma and mental health struggles, as well as the struggles that plagued the world around her as she tried to heal from the unimaginable.