**Winner of the NAACP Image Award and finalist for the 2019 Los Angeles Times Book Prize“A powerful work of lyric art.” —New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice**In fierce, agile poems, Felon tells the story of the effects of incarceration—canvassing a wide range of emotions and experiences through homelessness, underemployment, love, drug abuse, domestic violence, fatherhood, and grace—and, in doing so, creates a travelogue for an imagined life. Regin...

**One of Library Journal's Best Books of 2025One of Literary Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2025Doggerel is a revelatory meditation on Blackness, masculinity, and vulnerability from one of poetry’s boldest voices.**Reginald Dwayne Betts is our foremost chronicler of the ways prison shapes and transforms American life. In Doggerel, Betts examines this subject through a more prosaic—but equally rich—lens: dogs. He reminds us that, a...

A beautiful commemorative edition of Dr. Martin Luther King’s essay “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” part of Dr. King’s archives published exclusively by HarperCollins.With an afterword by Reginald Dwayne BettsOn April 16, 1923, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., responded to an open letter written and published by eight white clergyman admonishing the civil rights demonstrations happening in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. King drafted his seminal respons...

By turns hilarious, candid, and heartbreaking, this powerful book takes the straitjacket off Black history.A refreshing, insightful, sacrilegious take on African American history, Crazy as Hell explores the site of America’s greatest contradictions. The notables of this book are the runaways and the rebels, the badass and funky, the activists and the inmates—from Harriet Tubman, Nina Simone, and Muhammad Ali to B’rer Rabbit, Single Mamas, and Wakandans—but...

An exquisite body of work celebrating the centennial of one of the most important African-American poets of the twentieth century.Robert Hayden was one of the most important American poets of the twentieth century. He left behind an exquisite body of work, collected in this definitive edition, including A Ballad of Remembrance, Words in the Mourning Time, The Night-Blooming Cereus, Angle of Ascent, and American Journal, which was nominat...

A unique prison narrative that testifies to the power of books to transform a young man's lifeAt the age of sixteen, R. Dwayne Betts-a good student from a lower- middle-class family-carjacked a man with a friend. He had never held a gun before, but within a matter of minutes he had committed six felonies. In Virginia, carjacking is a "certifiable" offense, meaning that Betts would be treated as an adult under state law. A bright young kid, he served his nine-year s...

By turns hilarious, candid, and heartbreaking, this powerful book takes the straitjacket off Black history.A refreshing, insightful, sacrilegious take on African American history, Crazy as Hell explores the site of America's greatest contradictions. The notables of this book are the runaways and the rebels, the badass and funky, the activists and the inmates—from Harriet Tubman, Nina Simone, and Muhammad Ali to B'rer Rabbit, Single Mamas, and Wakandans—but...

A searing volume by a poet whose work conveys “the visceral effect that prison has on identity” (New York Times).Felon tells the story of one man in fierce, dazzling poems― canvassing his wide range of emotions and experiences through homelessness, underemployment, love, drug abuse, domestic violence, fatherhood, and grace― and, in doing so, creates a travelogue for an imagined life. Reginald Dwayne Betts confronts the funk of post-incarceration e...

At the age of sixteen, R. Dwayne Betts—a good student from a lower-middle-class family—carjacked a man with a friend. He had never held a gun before, but within a matter of minutes he had committed six felonies. In Virginia, carjacking is a "certifiable" offense, meaning that Betts would be treated as an adult under state law. A bright young kid, he served his nine-year sentence as part of the adult population in some of the worst prisons in the state.A Question of Freedom...

The untold story of the little-known Manhattan slave rebellion of 1741 and the white hysteria that resulted.

Super Bowl Champion and two-time Pro Bowler Michael Bennett is an outspoken proponent for social justice and a man without a censor. One of the most scathingly humorous athletes on the planet, he is also a fearless activist, grassroots philanthropist, and organizer.Bennett, a defensive end for the Seattle Seahawks, has gained international recognition for his public support for the Black Lives Matter Movement and women's rights. Bennett donates all his endorsement money and half of...

'Fascinating . . . a riveting tour' MERLIN SHELDRAKE'Game of Thrones meets the Natural History Museum meets Grimm fairytales . . . fascinating, enthralling and definitely enchanting' CHRIS PACKHAM'Thrilling, wide-ranging and profound' CASPER HENDERSONThe hydra rears its many heads in a flurry of teeth and poisonous fumes. The cyborg lays waste to humanity with a ruthless, expressionless stare.