Containing six short stories and fifty poems, I Made My Boy Out of Poetry, by Savannah poet and author Aberjhani, was initially published by Washington Publications in 1998. The first cover featured an original oil painting by native New Orleans artist Gustave Blache III. The painting, titled “Portrait of a Young Man,” reportedly survived Hurricane Katrina and in 2010 sold in an auction for five figures. The stories and poems in I Made My Boy Out of Poetry were written from the early 1980s to the late 1990s. For that reason, they reflect a synthesis of polished academic form and the raw energy of spoken word culture that emerged in the United States during the 1990s.

Prior to its publication, work from the title appeared in a number of both well-established and underground publications. These included: The African-American Literary Review; The Angry Fixx; The Dull Fly; The Georgia Guardian; Out of the Blue; Poets, Artists, and Madmen; The Savannah Literary Journal; and The Savannah Tribune. Later, ESSENCE Magazine featured work from the book.