Poetry

Now in paperback, Claudia Rankine's "skyscraper in the literature on racism" (Christian Science Monitor) In Just Us, Claudia Rankine invites us into a necessary conversation about Whiteness in America. What would it take for us to breach the silence,...

Porsha Olayiwola's debut poetry collection soars with the power and presence of live performance. These poems dip their hands into the fabric of black womanhood and revel in it. Shimmer establishes Olayiwola firmly in the lineage of black queer poetics,...

I am the Rage is not just a poetry book. It is a call-to-action.This evocative collection of thirty poems puts readers in the position of feeling, reflecting, and empathizing with what it means to be Black in America today. Dr. Martina McGowan, a doctor...

Winner of the 2020 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets Layered, complex, and infinitely compelling, Chet'la Sebree's Field Study is a daring exploration of the self and our interactions with others--a meditation on desire, race, loss...

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,...

There has been explosive interest in the life of Pauli Murray, as reflected in a recent profile in The New Yorker, the publication of a definitive biography, and a new Yale University college in her name. Murray has been suddenly cited by leading...

Explore, through 65 poems and letters, the depths of black mental health, belief in a higher power, stimulant usage, reliance on family, and love. With an emphasis on the mental, physical, and spiritual resilience of black people, it relates the journey...

One thing is for certain, Black Men Do Cry! Ever care to ask yourself why? Consider the emotional burden of love, loss, defeat, and mental disparity. Is that necessarily just a Black thing, or can others relate as well?   Commonality within...

"Amy Praises God In Poetry," is full of powerful testimonies to draw people closer to God. People will be encouraged as they gain a greater revelation that God will never leave or forsake them. You will find hope and strength as you read the pages inside...

Finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry One of the New York Times Critics' Top Books of 2018 A powerful, timely, dazzling collection of sonnets from one of America's most acclaimed poets, Terrance Hayes,...

Ain't Never Not Been Black foregrounds Black pleasure Black pain and Black love in unflinchingly Black ways. Engaging with themes of masculinity, racism, love, and joy, Johnson is at once critical and creative. His spoken word performance transfers...

In this stunning collection, Joy Harjo finds blessings in the abundance of her homeland and confronts the site where the Mvskoke people, including her own ancestors, were forcibly displaced. From her memory of her mother's death, to her beginnings in the...

A Garden of Black Joy's anthology of poems, interviews, and essays spotlight black joy not only as a resource of abundance, but as a mode of self-defense. Poets from Berlin to Kiambu, Antwerp, London, and beyond provide a sketch of what black joy means...

Critically acclaimed author Jabari Asim and Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator E. B. Lewis give readers a fascinating glimpse into the boyhood of Civil Rights leader John Lewis. John wants to be a preacher when he grows up a leader whose words stir...

This book will be released on August 31, 2010.Skin, Inc. is Thomas Sayers Elliss big, ambitious argument in sound and image for an America whose identity is in need of repair. In lyric sequences and with his own photographs, Ellis traverses the African...

Tara Betts received her MFA from New England College and she is a Cave Canem Fellow. Her work appears in Callaloo, Essence, and the Spoken Word Revelation, among other publications. She teaches creative writing at Rutgers University. Tara Betts deftly...