Poetry

In her legendary career, artist and activist Nikki Giovanni has established herself as a writer who can entertain and challenge, and a voice for social justice who can inform and inspire in times of national crisis. Controversial, revolutionary,...

"Tracy K. Smith's poetry is an awakening itself." --Vogue Celebrated for its extraordinary intelligence and exhilarating range, the poetry of Tracy K. Smith opens up vast questions. Such Color: New and Selected Poems, her first career-spanning volume,...

Collected here are poems from Ai's previous five books--Cruelty, Killing Floor, Sin, Fate, and Greed--along with seventeen new poems. Employing her trademark ferocity, these new dramatic monologues continue to mine this award-winning poet's often...

Dasan Ahanu is a southern storyteller who uses his poetry as a tool for conveying messages and for giving voice to the lived experiences of those who find themselves at the center and in the margins. Everything Worth Fighting For: An exploration of being...

As Marilyn Hacker has written, Black, lesbian, mother, cancer survivor, urban woman: by product of Lorde's selves has ever silenced the others; the counterpoint among them is often the material of her strongest poems.

Grace, dignity, and eloquence have long been hallmarks of Maya Angelou's poetry. Her measured verses have stirred our souls, energized our minds, and healed our hearts. Whether offering hope in the darkest of nights or expressing sincere joy at the...

Nursery Rhymes in Black is a poetic recollection of race, roots, culture, and identity. Paying homage to the memory and work of elders and ancestors, Latorial Faison remembers her own matriarch, mother, grandmother--the rich memories of having grown up...

These are prayers for your moments of gratitude and celebration. For your seasons of loss and waiting. For your days when prayers come, not in words but in groans. When We Talk to God, from poet-theologian Sharifa Stevens, captures the arc and the ache...

The Bronx born activist and poet Roya Marsh returns with a riveting exploration of Black joy, collective action, and healing. what will come of what you leave behind?do youremember that timeyou survived? The poems in Roya Marsh's second collection,...

Winner of the Coretta Scott King Award, and New York Times bestselling author Nikki Grimes introduces Glory, Too, a soul-stirring collection of poetry that delves into the depths of faith, hope, and the human experience by one of America's preeminent...

A new retrospective of a titan of LGBTQ literature, activism, and Black feminism Award-winning poet and essayist Cheryl Clarke's illustrious career has spanned more than four decades and culminates in Archive of Style: New and Selected Poems, a...

A poetry collection that reflects on intimate aspects of Black history, culture, and identity, revealing an uncommon gaze on working-class Philadelphia from the 1960s to the present day In 55 poems, Migration Letters straddles the personal and public...