Charleston, SC, July 28, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Palmetto Publishing has released A Few More Tears to Shed, a debut poetry and short story collection by Ruby Jewel Jackson. The book gathers writings composed over more than five decades, from the 1960s through the early 2010s, and was assembled by Jackson’s grandson, Lorenzo Dawkins, who compiled the work from notebooks and scattered pages his grandmother filled throughout her life.
The collection draws from the full arc of Jackson’s experience as a Black woman, mother, grandmother, and counselor. Her poems address the everyday and the extraordinary in equal measure. Readers encounter the warmth of a family Christmas gathering, the quiet persistence of a love that endured across twenty years, and vivid portraits of relatives whose personalities shaped generations. Interspersed among the poems are short prose pieces that function as family lore, including the story of a rescued kitten named Bertha and accounts of ancestors Jackson wanted future generations to know by name.
At the heart of the collection is Jackson’s reckoning with loss, most pointedly the death of her son. Her poems move through grief without sentimentality, grounded in faith and in the rituals of memory that hold families together. The risk the book confronts is silence. Jackson wrote for decades without publishing, and the work nearly remained private. Dawkins undertook the project of preservation because he recognized that his grandmother’s voice carried truths about resilience, love, and healing that extended well beyond their family.
Ruby Jewel Jackson stated, “I wanted to write stories and poetry when I was 13 years old. At the time we only had the radio and so I drew inspiration from listening to country songs that would play during those times. I want people to take away that no matter what age you are, don’t give up on your dreams.”
The book speaks to readers who value authentic, unpolished voices over literary polish. It sits alongside works by Nikki Giovanni and Maya Angelou’s autobiographical verse, yet occupies its own space as the writings of a woman who was not a professional poet but a mental health counselor, an alcohol and drug counselor in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and a service worker with people with disabilities along the Gulf Coast. For women aged 25 to 65 who cherish family heritage, oral tradition, and the act of preserving stories before they are lost, A Few More Tears to Shed arrives at a moment when readers are seeking genuine voices rooted in lived experience rather than literary performance.
A Few More Tears to Shed is available for purchase online at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. For more information about the author, please visit any of their social media platforms.
About the Author: Ruby Jewel Jackson is a poet and storyteller whose work draws on over five decades of lived experience, from the 1960s through the early 2010s. A trained mental health counselor who served clients in Denver, Colorado, she later worked as an alcohol and drug counselor for Delta Resource Independent Living in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where she used poetry, short stories, and motivational writing as tools for healing. She continued her career in service at L.I.F.E. of Mississippi, working with people with disabilities across the Gulf Coast. Throughout every chapter of her professional life, writing remained her constant companion.
Ruby began writing at an early age, born on a small island in Arkansas where her love of poetry and the arts took root. Though she never pursued writing as a formal profession, she never stopped putting pen to paper, capturing the moments, people, and emotions that shaped her world. Her debut collection, A Few More Tears to Shed, brings together poems and family stories written across the decades, offering readers an everyday woman’s perspective on love, family, loss, and joy. Some of her earlier work was lost to the passage of time, but Ruby has continued to rebuild and preserve her voice for future generations.
A mother of nine, Ruby is also a grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-great-grandmother, a true matriarch whose legacy lives in both her family and her words. She currently resides in Biloxi, Mississippi, surrounded by the family that has inspired so much of her writing. Follow Ruby Jewel Jackson for updates on new releases.
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Available for interviews: Author, Ruby Jewel Jackson