WINNER OF THE 2020 PULITZER PRIZE FOR POETRYFinalist for the 2019 National Book Award"100 Notable Books of the Year," The New York Times Book ReviewOne Book, One Philadelphia Citywide Reading Program Selection, 2021"By some literary magic—no, it's precision, and honesty—Brown manages to bestow upon even the most public of subjects the most intimate and personal stakes."—Cr...

Borrowing the title of a traditional African American hymn, Standing in the Need of Prayer poetically describes the vulnerability of black men and the ongoing injustice they encounter in America. Noted poet, Nikki Giovanni speaks to participants of the Million Man March, Tupac's mother, and expresses her own trepidation felt in response to late-night callers who may or may not be the bearers of tragic news. Her writings are bookended with poems by DXTR Spits (Jordan Holmes) as well as Puli...

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 book on the craft of writing that focuses on the Black creative spirit.How We Do It is an anthology curated by Black writers for the creation and proliferation of Black thought. While a creator’s ethnicity does no...

Honored as a "Best Book of 2014" by Library JournalNPR.org writes: “In his second collection, The New Testament, Brown treats disease and love and lust between men, with a gentle touch, returning again and again to the stories of the Bible, which confirm or dispute his vision of real life. 'Every last word is contagious,' he writes, awake to all the implications of that phrase. There is plenty of guilt—survivor’s guilt, sinner’s guilt—and ever-pre...

Mary Jean Chan and Andrew McMillan's luminous anthology, 100 Queer Poems, is a celebration of thrilling contemporary voices and visionary poets of the past. Featuring Elizabeth Bishop, Langston Hughes, Ocean Vuong, Carol Ann Duffy, Kae Tempest and many more.* A Guardian Best Poetry Book of the Year ** Shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards *Encompassing both the flowering of queer poetry over the past f...

**LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR POETRYWINNER OF THE A. POULIN, JR. POETRY PRIZEA LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF 2017 SELECTION: POETRY & LITERATUREON NPR BOOKS'S LIST OF "POETRY TO PAY ATTENTION TO: 2017'S BEST VERSE"A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 2017 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE SELECTION**In this ferocious and tender debut, Chen Chen investigates inherited forms of love and family—the strained relationship between a mother and son, the cos...

A New York Times Best Poetry Book of 2024Drawing from all six of his collections, The Selected Shepherd offers a new retrospective on the work of an important and sometimes controversial Black, gay poet. Although well known for his erotic poems about white men, Shepherd also wrote consistently about the natural world and its endangerment and his grief over his mother’s death. Presented in both publication order and the order in which they originally appeared withi...

"...This volume of verse displays the undeniable legacy June Jordan left on both our literature and culture. Collected here are blazing examples of poetry as activism, stanzas that speak truth to power and speak out against violence against women and police brutality. But Jordan also speaks on the significance of hope, mixing, as Brown puts it, 'the doom and devastation made mundane through media with the hard decision to love anyway.'"—O, The Oprah MagazineThe Essenti...

A harbinger of the Harlem Renaissance first published in 1922, this collection of poignant, lyrical poems explores Claude McKay’s yearning for his Jamaican homeland and the bitter plight of Black and African Caribbean people in America—now with an introduction by Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Jericho Brown.ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022—VultureWith pure heart, passion, and honesty, Claude McKay offers an acute reflection o...

Yes, there is barbecue, but that’s just one course of the meal. With Vinegar and Char the Southern Foodways Alliance celebrates twenty years of symposia by offering a collection of poems that are by turns as sophisticated and complex, as vivid and funny, and as buoyant and poignant as any SFA gathering.The roster of contributors includes Natasha Trethewey, Robert Morgan, Atsuro Riley, Adrienne Su, Richard Blanco, Ed Madden, Nikky Finney, Frank X Walker, Sheryl St. Germain,...

**LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR POETRYWINNER OF THE THOM GUNN AWARD FOR GAY POETRYWINNER OF THE GLCA NEW WRITERS AWARDWINNER OF THE A. POULIN, JR. POETRY PRIZEA LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF 2017 SELECTION: POETRY & LITERATUREON NPR BOOKS'S LIST OF "POETRY TO PAY ATTENTION TO: 2017'S BEST VERSE"**In this ferocious and tender debut, Chen Chen investigates inherited forms of love and family—the strained relationship between...

Winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for PoetryFinalist for the 2019 National Book AwardJericho Brown's daring 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 incredibly human: What is safety? Who is this nation? Where does freedom truly lie? Brown makes mythical pasto...