From W.H.Y.Y. in Philadelphia, I'm Terry Gross with Fresh Air Weekend.

Today, why Father is Cry at Night is the title of the new memoir by Kwame Alexander.

It started as a book of love poems, been ended up being a book of poems and essays

about falling in love, the end of his two marriages, raising two children,

and one of them leaving home and cutting ties.

Kwame Alexander is best known for his children's books, including The Undefeated,

which won the Caldecapt Medal.

Also, we'll hear from Chef Lydia Bastionic.

She's won James Beard Awards, hosted a long-running PBS series and written cookbooks.

She'll talk about her childhood fleeing communism after World War II,

living in a refugee camp in Italy, where she and her family were housed

in a former Nazi concentration camp, emigrating to the U.S. and becoming a chef.

That's coming up on Fresh Air Weekend.

This is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Terry Gross.

On the opening page of Kwame Alexander's beautifully written new memoir,

he writes,

My mother died on September 1, 2017.

Within a month, the cracks in my marriage emerged.

They would eventually become impassable canyons.

Within two years, our eldest would pack her belongings,

clothes, books, heart, and leave home, and leave us.

Overnight, I was barefoot, on Mount Everest."

...