Colby Cedar Smith is an award-winning poet, novelist, and educator, and the author of two novels in verse: The Siren and the Star and Call Me Athena. Her work often focuses on the untold stories of women throughout history and has been recognized with a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection, an ALA Rise: A Feminist Book Project selection, a Goodreads Choice Award Best Poetry nomination, a Nautilus Award, a Michigan Notable Book selection, a Midwest Book Award, and a New Jersey Council on the Arts Fellowship. Her poems and narratives have been featured by Forbes, Poetry, and NPR. She holds a BA from Colorado College and an EdM from Harvard University. You can find her on Instagram @Colby_Cedar_Smith.
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In a novel that is both soaring and searing, THE SIREN AND THE STAR is full of the magic and poetry that makes you want to hug a book tight.
– Elizabeth Acevedo, former Young People's Poet Laureate and New York Times-bestselling author of Poet X.
Readers who love verse novels and books told in dual timelines will want to get this one on their TBRs.
– Book Riot, 10/29/25
This atmospheric, visceral verse novel will appeal to readers of Joy McCullough’s Blood Water Paint (2018), fans of strong female protagonists, and lovers of the arts.
– Booklist, 10/1/25
Told in evocative verse, this skillfully crafted and emotionally resonant story explores ambition, resilience, identity, trauma, and the reclamation of women’s voices across history. Dreamy and thoughtful.
– Kirkus, September 1, 2025
Readers of books in verse, romance, and music history will all be drawn to this engaging book.
– School Library Journal, 10/1/25
"Lyrical, layered, and richly imagined, The Siren & the Star brings 17th-century Venice to life through two intertwined voices and a long-buried stanza of the past. Colby Cedar Smith has created a melodic masterpiece of hidden history."
– #1 New York Times bestselling author, Ruta Sepetys
“The Siren and the Star is powerful, sensual, and just as musical as the fascinating history.”
– Margarita Engle, Newbery Honor winning author of The Surrender Tree and Young People's Poet Laureate Emeritus
"If you love female empowerment, classical music, magic, witchiness, and even a spicy romance, then you’ll love love love this book!”
– Jasminne Mendez, The Pura Belpré Honor Award winning author of Aniana del Mar Jumps In
"A soaring, symphonic novel-in-verse.”
– Rebecca Caprara, award-winning author of Spin
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