You were born to make manifest the beauty inside of you.
And you don’t do this by chasing perfection or arguing against reality.
You co-create with what is—the mess and the beauty, the honey and the knife, for all that you are will always lead to love.
Most self-help books start with some panic-inducing premise about there being Something Deeply Wrong with you that only their One True Method can repair:
Follow this top-knot hippie with the 500K followers and beatific smile.
Change your mindset in three-easy steps for $797 a month.
Take this 88-question quiz and discover your Feminine Archetype and free yourself from this existential, traumatic experience called life.
If you’re ready for self-help that doesn’t sell dopamine crashes and unicorn farts—my book is for you.
Honey Is the Knife isn’t a formula, a step-by-step guide, or a new religion with a ten-dollar meditation app.
It’s a collection of whispered invitations: to holy discomfort, everyday bliss, and radical self-honesty.
Inside, you’ll find Yoruba cosmology and modern goddess journeys tangled with anxiety attacks in Italy, pillow goddess erotic awakenings, grief-soaked mornings, and the miracle of trusting yourself before you trust anyone else.
If you’re exhausted from being told to sacrifice yourself, smile pretty, and apologize for your complexity, my book sees you.
She says: You don’t need to be perfectly whole or save the world to follow your bliss.
You just need to remember that
your honey is the knife.
Praise for Honey Is the Knife…
“Spiritual, carnal, erudite, and exquisitely original, Honey Is the Knife is a balm and a treasure, a luminous book to be savored. Hannah Eko’s deep love for Black women imbues every line. She wants the best for us, wants us to be pleasure-centered. And for those of us who need a map to get there, Eko is that gentle, vulnerable guide walking alongside us in these pages. I am smarter, more compassionate with myself, and more in awe of myself, for having read this beautiful book.”
—Deesha Philyaw, National Book Award Finalist & PEN Faulkner Award winning author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
“Honey Is the Knife is an anthem for Black women. Eko incisively and generously shares her journey and wisdom on loving one's self and sharing just how she has arrived to centering pleasure, self-care, and truth telling. A well-researched feast, full of insights about colorism, feminism, alternative modes of healing, and spirituality. This book is the perfect gift for sisters, friends, lovers, and aunties who need a salve in these trying moments. Honest and illuminating!”
-Angie Cruz, author of Soledad, Let It Rain Coffee, and the YA/ALSA winning novel Dominicana
“Hannah Eko’s sparkling debut, Honey Is the Knife, is part homage, part resistance, part love letter, and part road map from bounded to unbounded Black woman thinking. At its core is Osun, the Yoruba goddess and how the goddess can inspire daughters of the diaspora. Eko has assembled a multifaceted anti-self-help manifesto that reconsiders and reconfigures a popular and problematic genre. It’s an earnest and vulnerable work written in service of what Angela Davis has called “freedom practice.” Influential luminaries like bell hooks, Ntozake Shange, and Sojourner Truth (to name a few) inform Eko’s book, which honors her ancestors and holds its own, leading the way for a new generation. Do not let this sweetness pass you by!”
—Yona Harvey, poet, Kate Tufts Discovery award winner, and author of Hemming the Water and You Don’t Have To Go To Mars for Love
“Honey Is the Knife is an intricately fashioned, profoundly moving book. In this work, Hannah Eko presents a collection of nonfiction that you'll want to sit with for days, savoring the nuance and wonder of every word. The language is toothy and raw and it is a special thing to find a writer so gifted and committed to expressing the self. Eko does this skillfully, carefully; with exacting precision. Honey Is the Knife is astounding and Hannah Eko is a phenomenal writer.”
—Kristen Arnett, New York Times best selling writer and author of Mostly Dead Things & With Teeth: A Novel