Black Poets and EssayistsLike this list

15 items

• Above Ground

  Poems

  Smith, Clint, 1988-

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  Clint Smith’s vibrant and compelling new collection traverses the vast emotional terrain of fatherhood, and explores how becoming a parent has recalibrated his sense of the world. Smith’s lyrical, narrative poems bring the reader on a journey not…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• To Free the Captives

  a Plea for the American Soul

  Smith, Tracy K.,

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  In 2020, heartsick from constant assaults on Black life, Tracy K. Smith found herself soul-searching and digging into the historical archive for help navigating the “din of human division and strife.” With lyricism and urgency, Smith draws on…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• How We Do It

  Black Writers on Craft, Practice, and Skill

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  More than 30 acclaimed writers—including diverse voices such as Nikki Giovanni, David Omotosho Black, Natasha Trethewey, Barry Jenkins, Jacqueline Woodson, Tayari Jones, and Angela Flournoy—reflect on their experience and expertise in this unique…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Tradition

  Brown, Jericho,

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  Jericho Brown’s daring new book The Tradition details the normalization of evil and its history at the intersection of the past and the personal. Brown’s poetic concerns are both broad and intimate, and at their very core a distillation of the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• This Is the Honey

  An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poets

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  In this comprehensive and vibrant poetry anthology, bestselling author and poet Kwame Alexander curates a collection of contemporary anthems at turns tender and piercing and deeply inspiring throughout. Featuring work from well-loved poets such as…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A Darker Wilderness

  Black Nature Writing From Soil to Stars

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  In A Darker Wilderness, a constellation of luminary writers reflect on the significance of nature in their lived experience and on the role of nature in the lives of Black folks in the United States. Each of these essays engages with a single…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Chrome Valley

  Poems

  Browne, Mahogany L.,

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  Boldly lyrical and fiercely honest, Mahogany L. Browne’s Chrome Valley offers an intricate portrait of Black womanhood in America. “We praise their names / & the hands that write / Praise the mouth that speaks,” she writes in tribute to those who…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Four Hundred Souls

  a Community History of African America, 1619-2019

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  Four Hundred Souls is a unique one-volume “community” history of African Americans. The editors, Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, have assembled ninety brilliant writers, each of whom takes on a five-year period of that four-hundred-year span.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• You Are Only Just Beginning

  Lessons for the Journey Ahead

  Nichols, Morgan Harper, 1990-

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  In You Are Only Just Beginning, popular Instagram poet and bestselling author Morgan Harper Nichols reimagines the classic heroine's journey—from the very first call to adventure, through trials, hardships, and new relationships, all the way back…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Saltwater Demands a Psalm

  Poems

  Abimbola, Kweku,

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  Saltwater Demands a Psalm creates a cosmology in search of Black eternity governed by Adinkra symbols―pictographs central to Ghanaian language and culture in their proverbial meanings―and rooted in units of time created from the rhythms of Black…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Just Us

  An American Conversation

  Rankine, Claudia, 1963-

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  This brilliant assembly of essays, poems, documents, and images disrupts the false comfort of our culture’s liminal and private spaces―the airport, the theater, the dinner party, the voting booth―where neutrality and politeness deflect true…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Green River Valley

  Poems

  Lashley, Robert,

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  Green River Valley, Robert Lashley’s third poetry collection, is an unapologetic and harrowing look at gentrification, racism, and personal and collective loss in his hometown of Tacoma, Washington. With each poem, Lashley asks readers to bear…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Watch Your Language

  Visual and Literary Reflections on a Century of American Poetry

  Hayes, Terrance,

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  Canonized, overlooked, and forgotten African American poets star in Terrance Hayes's brilliant contemplations of personal, canonical, and allegorical literary development. Illustrated micro-essays, graphic book reviews, biographical prose poems, and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Bell Hooks

  the Last Interview and Other Conversations

  hooks, bell, 1952-2021,

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  hooks’s unflinching dedication to her work carved deep grooves for the feminist and anti-racist movements. Whether she was sparking controversy on campuses or facing criticism from contemporaries, hooks relentlessly challenged herself and those…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Magically Black and Other Essays

  Walker, Jerald,

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  In this engaging follow up to How to Make a Slave and Other Essays, the recipient of PEN New England Award for nonfiction and finalist for the National Book Award sharply examines and explains Black life and culture with equal parts candor and humor.