From A Studio in Oakland, California: 108 Notes on Existence
by Enia Oaks

From a Studio in Oakland California is a collection of 108 soulful poems and essays on what it means to be human. To love, to lose, to hope, to begin again, to wonder, and to evolve.

Written during a season of personal reckoning and return, these pieces are meant to read like offerings left for the reader to pick up and find resonance where needed.

Part self-help, part poetic observation, this book is designed to meet readers at the crossroads of past and future–where grief, growth, healing, and expansion converge.

It is a work of shared wisdom, supportive permission, and soul-level reminders to the reader: of their wholeness, their capacity, and their right to take up space in this world.

This book is for anyone standing in the middle of their own becoming. More than anything, it is meant as a love letter to whoever may find their way through its pages.

5 out of 5 fairies

This was a beautiful collection, and felt like a nice piece of work to slip into when I needed a break from the noise and darkness of the world. Although you could probably read this pretty quickly, I highly recommend taking it slowly, and just reading it when you need a quiet moment, and letting each piece flow through you. Although there are some tough things that you’re forced to confront in the pages of this book, Oaks brings a quiet strength to them, and there’s an odd comfort that facing them down brings. I don’t quite know how to explain it, it’s something you really need to read and experience for yourself. It’s not quite self-help, but not quite solely poetry and essays, either. Life has this balance of dark and light, and Oaks balances those things in this collection, bringing them to the reader in equal measure. Highly recommend if you enjoy poetry and prose that makes you think, and reflect on yourself and your life, but that you can easily digest in small bits.

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Enia Oaks is a Nigerian-born emergency medicine doctor and author who writes at the intersection of self-inquiry, healing, and transcendence. She has spent years in high-stakes medical environments before turning inward to begin exploring the emotional, spiritual, and existential truths that shaped her. Her creative voice crystallized while living in Oakland, California, where she began to translate lived experience into language. Her debut book, From a Studio in Oakland, California: 108 Notes on Existence, is a collection of poems and micro-essays that navigate the space between the ache and awe of being alive. Through quiet wisdom and refined clarity, her work invites readers into deeper intimacy with their own becoming.

The decision to write this book is rooted in Oak’s own decisions about the ways she wants to impact the world. Her entry point to writing it was burnout and near-complete disillusionment when she found herself in the center of a medical system that had long stopped honoring the human soul. And something inside of her broke when she realized how casually we’d stopped treating life as sacred. That violation felt like a kind of sacrament. It woke her up.

So, she began writing. First, as a reminder to self. Then slowly, with reverence for her interconnected position — as a sister, a daughter, a friend, a doctor, a thinker. Someone who had walked through painful soul expansions that others might just now be entering.  She does not want instruct, but rather provoke thought and deeper exploration of self. She wanted to offer something honest. Something that could be picked up when it was needed, like a note passed at exactly the right moment.

Readers can connect with Enia Oaks on Instagram.

To learn more, visit EniaOaks.com