Danez Smith Bluff : A powerful new collection reckoning with America, protest

A searing new collection from the Forward Prizewinning American poet about the year 2020, the year that the worlds gaze turned to Minneapolis Smiths own home. A TIME MAGAZINE 100 MustRead Books of 2024Bluff is my book of the year. Absolutely breathtaking Joelle Taylor, author of C+NTO + Othered PoemsYou will want to underline almost every line ... One of the best books of poetry Ive read buy it for anyone you love Hollie McNish, author of PlumGripping ... Its as though the world is a scattered puzzle that Danez analyses and bears witness to Yomi Sode, author of ManorismWritten during the time the world came to a halt due to the COVID19 pandemic, and Minneapolis became the epicentre of protest following the murder of George Floyd, Bluff is Danez Smiths powerful reckoning with their responsibility as a poet and with their hometown. Smith brings a startling urgency to these poems, their questions demanding a new language, new textual shapes and a deep selfscrutiny. Ars poetica gives way to ars america. A photographic collage makes clear the consequence of accepting mass shootings. A brilliant long poem maps the history of MinneapolisSaint Pauls vibrant Rondo neighbourhood, before and after officials decided to run an interstate directly through it. Bluff is a manifesto about artistic resilience when the places we most love those given and made are burning. In this collection, Smith turns to honesty, hope, rage and imagination to envision futures that seem possible. PRAISE FOR... | Danez Smith Bluff : A powerful new collection reckoning with America, protest