All Familiar Things Were Once Strange

From Sophia Joan Short — Los Angeles writer, yoga teacher, and social media strategist whose work is rooted in the connective power of emotion: the belief that the right words, arriving at the right moment, can make someone feel less alone and more capable of what comes next. "All Familiar Things Were Once Strange" is her debut collection.

This is not formal or traditional poetry. It is warm, accessible prose-poetry and short-form encouragement — pieces that read the way a wise friend talks, not the way a literature class sounds. If that register resonates with you, this book was made for you. If you arrive expecting rhyme schemes and stanzas, you’re in the wrong place.

The title carries the whole premise: everything that feels normal, easy, or second-nature to you right now — every relationship, every skill, every version of yourself you've grown into — was once completely unfamiliar. The strange becomes known. The unknown becomes yours. That's not a consolation. It's a framework for how to approach what's next.

Short wrote from the major themes of her own life so far: finding the courage to try something new, the relationship with yourself and others, mental health, growing up, and the future. The pieces aren't prescriptive — there's no program, no steps, no instructions. What they offer is recognition: the feeling of reading something and thinking yes, that's exactly it, and feeling slightly less alone in the middle of whatever you're navigating.

There is no right way to read this book. Flip to a random page. Read one piece before bed. Tear out the poem that speaks to exactly where you are right now and put it somewhere you'll see it. One reader described reading one piece aloud to their work team each morning. Another keeps it on the nightstand. The book holds up to both.

Perfect for:

- Readers in a transition — a new city, a new job, a new chapter after a relationship, a first real step into adulthood — who need something that meets them where they are without asking them to have it figured out yet
- Fans of Morgan Harper Nichols, Yung Pueblo, or the shorter encouragement-prose in Brianna Wiest's work who want another voice in the same warm, accessible register
- Anyone who has ever felt behind, out of place, or like everyone else already knows how this works — and needed a reminder that unfamiliarity is the condition of growth, not evidence of failure
- Gift buyers looking for something to give someone starting something new: graduation, a move, a breakup, a first year of something hard. The title alone does the work on a gift card
- Readers who prefer dip-in collections over books that must be read front-to-back — this is a book you return to at different life stages, not one you finish once and shelve

A Thought Catalog Books imprint.