Essential reading for all humans — insightful, brilliant, and emotive writing from Audre Lorde.
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde, (List Price: $27, Penguin Classics, 9780143134442, February 2020)
Reviewed by RC Collman, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Most of these poems were written as the things were happening, because for me, poetry is the act of paying attention. It is both the creation of art and the mechanism through which I do my best thinking. For me, the poems are time capsules, little archives that allow me to capture a moment or a feeling. And excavating the granularity of those moments makes me more appreciative of those moments as a whole, so the next time a version of that happens, I’m able to more fully be there with it. The period of time during which your kids are both physically able and emotionally willing to have a dance party with you in the kitchen is pretty brief. I think writing poetry helps me hold onto those moments in the same way that a photograph does.” ―Clint Smith, Interview, Esquire
What booksellers are saying about Above Ground
About Clint Smith
Clint Smith is a staff writer at The Atlantic. He is the author of the narrative nonfiction book, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America, which was a #1 New York Times bestseller, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the Hillman Prize for Book Journalism, and selected by the New York Times as one of the 10 best books of 2021. He is also the author of the poetry collection Counting Descent, which won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. His writing has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review. and elsewhere. Clint received his B.A. in English from Davidson College and a Ph.D. in Education from Harvard University.
An April 2023 Read This Next! Title
Above Ground is a poetry collection that is a heartfelt ode to fatherhood. These poems are imbued with the love, joy, wonder, and uncertainties that accompany being a parent. They also delve into family and ancestry, history and race, turmoil, and above all, hope. This is an important collection that I will highly recommend.
Above Ground by Clint Smith, (List Price: $27, Little, Brown and Company, 9780316543033, April 2023)
Reviewed by Damita Nocton, The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, North Carolina
This will inspire sobbing and a phone call to your mama. Deeply accessible, beautiful work.
Grocery Shopping with My Mother by Kevin Powell (List Price: $24, Soft Skull, 9781593767433, December 2022)
Reviewed by Aimee Keeble, Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina
Alive at the End of the World might not save my life, but it’s perfect company here between the rock and the hard place. Saeed Jones’ poems mold my daily depressive spiral into a crystalline mobius strip, looping endlessly back around to how we are harmed and do harm as this planet slouches towards Bethlehem. By turns grievous and grieving, this collection is a much-needed snapshot of coping mid-apocalypse.
Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones, (List Price: $16.95, Coffee House Press, 9781566896511, October 2022)
Reviewed by Terrance Hudson, Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Mason Hereford’s fun-loving personality is fully on display in this compilation of very accessible recipes from his New Orleans “sandwich joint.” Inspired by his childhood in rural Virginia as well as his new home in New Orleans, Hereford applies his irreverent attitude as frequently as he uses garnishes from the convenience store.
Turkey and the Wolf by Mason Hereford, (List Price: $30, Ten Speed Press, 9781984858993, June 2022)
Reviewed by Anne Peck, Righton Books in St Simons Island, Georgia
I don’t even know where to start with this one. Louise Gluck is just a master, and I kind of feel like that’s all there is to say about it. The technical precision and emotional brilliance she has in this collection is astounding. A poet truly deserving of the Nobel Prize in Literature. I recommend this book to anyone who is willing to put in the work required to appreciate it.
Faithful and Virtuous Night by Louise Glück, (List Price: $16, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 9780374535773, September 2015)
Reviewed by Juliet Rosner from E. Shaver, bookseller in Savannah, Georgia
I think this collection would make a great introduction to poetry for anybody. The work is simple and very readable but Mary Oliver does not sacrifice intellectual depth or technique for the sake of accessibility.
Felicity by Mary Oliver, (List Price: $17.95, Penguin Books, 9780143128762, October 2017)
Reviewed by Juliet Rosner from E. Shaver, bookseller in Savannah, Georgia
An April Read This Next! Book
Nothing short of beautiful. Fresh feeling poems populated with violence, the roadside, love, and what endures. Where war and tragedy and trauma persists, so do the bold spirit in each of these poems, unafraid to look back be tender. What I found most compelling in Time Is a Mother was the rhythm, dilating and breathing one moment, rapid and pulsing the next, capturing the flow of relative time the way only a voice like Vuong’s can.
Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong, (List Price: $24, Penguin Press, 9780593300237, April 2022)
Reviewed by Luis Correa, Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia
I loved the interplay between real life and mythology in this book of poetry. The fountain pen illustrations are charming and help bring the poetry to life.
Clock Star Rose Spine by Fran Wilde, (List Price: $18, Lanternfish Press, 9781941360576, August 2021)
Reviewed by Kate Storhoff, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
This little book of poems is going to haunt me until the end of my days. I don’t know how to describe how important every word in this book is, every beat, every heart wrenching sentence. Dear God is meant to be delivered directly to your face, the speaker’s voice barely a hiss. A question that can’t be answered- just heard.
Dear God. Dear Bones. Dear Yellow. by Noor Hindi, (List Price: $17, Haymarket Books, 9781642596960, May 2022)
Reviewed by Caitlyn Vanorder from Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, NC
So grateful for this collection of 70 diverse and extraordinary stories from our friends at Library of America and editor Connie Willis. This collection features voices from across the American experience an centuries and contains stories of mystery, horror, western, inspirational, fantasy, humor, and more! This would make a great gift and is long overdue. Shirley Jackson and Jack London, Amy Tan and Ray Bradbury, Mark Twain and Nalo Hopkinson. Very excited to put this into the hands of those who celebrate.
American Christmas Stories by Connie Willis, (List Price: 29.95, Library of America, 9781598537062, October 2021)
Reviewed by Kelly Justice, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia
These odes to African intellectuals by Will Alexander are so rich in imagery and sound that every line has something you’ve never read before. I’m not kidding! Refractive Africa is of the highest caliber of poetry on offer in these times.
Refractive Africa by Will Alexander, (List Price: $16.95, New Directions, 9780811230278, November 2021)
Reviewed by Conor Hultman, Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi
I love anything that blurs genre lines, so I loved the way this book is an experiment of blending poetry and prose, memoir and fiction. There’s a dash of collective storytelling here, too, in the way the author brings in the words of Black feminist poets and writers. A beautiful and earnest exploration of relationships, love, and desire.
Field Study by Chet’la Sebree, (List Price: 16, FSG Originals, 9780374539023, June 2021)
Reviewed by Kate Storhoff, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
I loved Morgan Parker’s collections There are More Beautiful Things Than Beyonce and Magical Negro so I was excited to go back and read her debut collection in its new re-released form. It comes with a lovely foreword by Danez Smith, whose observations enhanced my reading experience. From her other two collections, I knew I loved the way Parker combines poetry and music; I loved seeing in this collection how she brings the visual arts into her world, too.
Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night by Morgan Parker, (List Price: 16.95, Tin House Books, 9781951142568, July, 2021)
Reviewed by Kate Storhoff, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
