Exploring the Depths of Love: A Review of Derived From Us by Grace Burns

There’s a certain courage in writing about love when you’re still learning how it feels. Grace Burns, in her debut poetry collection Derived From Us, does exactly that — and more.

At just 21 years old (age 20 at the time of release), Grace doesn’t pretend to have answers. Instead, she offers an open-handed collection of poems that wrestle with identity, heartbreak, longing, and the raw electricity of feeling something deeply for the first time.

Who is Grace Burns?

For those unfamiliar, Grace Burns is more than a debut poet — she’s a young creative already finding her footing in multiple forms of art. The daughter of Christy Turlington and Edward Burns, Grace might be familiar to some from her public life, but her poetry and photography are a world apart. It speaks for itself, free from external expectations or celebrity weight.

Currently in her final year at NYU, she’s balancing education with creativity. There’s a kind of hunger in her work — not for fame, but for meaning. You get the sense she’s writing because she has to, not because she thinks she should. That distinction matters, and it’s part of what makes this collection compelling.

A Voice Emerging — but Clear

The first thing that struck me about Burns’ poetry is how unpolished it chooses to be. That’s not to say the writing lacks refinement — quite the opposite. But instead of filtering emotions through dense metaphor or academic distance, Burns leans into immediacy. Her work is personal, often direct, and delivered in a voice that is still forming but already confident in its emotional truth.

This is not poetry trying to be clever for the sake of it. It’s poetry that wants to be felt. Whether she’s exploring the ache of unrequited love or questioning her own sense of self, there’s an urgency to her words that resonates.

Standout Themes

Derived From Us is bound together by love — but not just romantic love. These poems move through different shades of connection: self-love, fractured friendships, admiration, confusion, maybe even spiritual yearning. What I appreciated most was how the collection never falls into cliché. Burns writes about love the way it actually feels when you’re young and unsure: overwhelming, contradictory, sometimes cruel, and always defining.

In one poem, she writes about her face as both a mirror and a mask— a powerful metaphor for the tension between internal self and public perception. Another piece muses on memory and its slippery nature — how we hold onto people who no longer exist the way we remember them.

There’s melancholy here, but also softness. Not despair, but introspection. These poems don’t demand answers — they live in the question.

A Promising First Flame

Derived From Us isn’t trying to be the definitive word on love or youth. It doesn’t need to be. What Grace Burns offers in this collection is honesty — sometimes awkward, sometimes lyrical, but always sincere.

That’s rare. And it’s why this book works.

If you enjoy poetry that wears its heart without armour, that isn’t afraid to feel too much or not know enough, Derived From Us is worth your time. Grace Burns might still be finding her poetic voice, but this debut proves she already has something worth saying, and something that’s worth listening to.

Written by Emma Cody.