So to Speak

Title
So to Speak
  • So To Speak by Terrance Hayes
Price
$20.00
Available In Store
A powerful, timely, dazzling new collection of poems from Terrance Hayes, the National Book Award-winning author of Lighthead--to be published simultaneously with his latest work of literary criticism, Watch Your Language

The three sections of Terrance Hayes' seventh collection explore how we see ourselves and our world, mapping the strange and lyrical grammar of thinking and feeling. In "Watch Your Mouth," a tree frog sings to overcome its fear of birds; in "Watch Your Step: The Kafka Virus," a talking cat tells jokes in the Jim Crow South; in "Watch Your Head," green beans bling in the mouth of Lil Wayne, and Bob Ross paints your portrait. On the one hand, these fabulous fables, American sonnets, quarantine quatrains, and ekphrastic do-it-yourself sestinas animate what Toni Morrison called "the writerly imagination of a black author who is at some level always conscious of representing one's own race." On the other hand, these urgent, personal poems contemplate fatherhood, history, and longing with remarkable openness and humanity. So To Speak is the mature, restless work of one of contemporary poetry's leading voices.
SKU
9780143137726
So to Speak
$20.00
Available In Store
Description
A powerful, timely, dazzling new collection of poems from Terrance Hayes, the National Book Award-winning author of Lighthead--to be published simultaneously with his latest work of literary criticism, Watch Your Language

The three sections of Terrance Hayes' seventh collection explore how we see ourselves and our world, mapping the strange and lyrical grammar of thinking and feeling. In "Watch Your Mouth," a tree frog sings to overcome its fear of birds; in "Watch Your Step: The Kafka Virus," a talking cat tells jokes in the Jim Crow South; in "Watch Your Head," green beans bling in the mouth of Lil Wayne, and Bob Ross paints your portrait. On the one hand, these fabulous fables, American sonnets, quarantine quatrains, and ekphrastic do-it-yourself sestinas animate what Toni Morrison called "the writerly imagination of a black author who is at some level always conscious of representing one's own race." On the other hand, these urgent, personal poems contemplate fatherhood, history, and longing with remarkable openness and humanity. So To Speak is the mature, restless work of one of contemporary poetry's leading voices.

Description
A powerful, timely, dazzling new collection of poems from Terrance Hayes, the National Book Award-winning author of Lighthead--to be published simultaneously with his latest work of literary criticism, Watch Your Language

The three sections of Terrance Hayes' seventh collection explore how we see ourselves and our world, mapping the strange and lyrical grammar of thinking and feeling. In "Watch Your Mouth," a tree frog sings to overcome its fear of birds; in "Watch Your Step: The Kafka Virus," a talking cat tells jokes in the Jim Crow South; in "Watch Your Head," green beans bling in the mouth of Lil Wayne, and Bob Ross paints your portrait. On the one hand, these fabulous fables, American sonnets, quarantine quatrains, and ekphrastic do-it-yourself sestinas animate what Toni Morrison called "the writerly imagination of a black author who is at some level always conscious of representing one's own race." On the other hand, these urgent, personal poems contemplate fatherhood, history, and longing with remarkable openness and humanity. So To Speak is the mature, restless work of one of contemporary poetry's leading voices.

ISBN
9780143137726
Publisher
Publication Date
July 25, 2023
Binding
Paperback
Item Condition
New
Staff Reviews:

Jen says: I love the poems in SO TO SPEAK for their urgency and their (literal) subversion. Hayes disassembles traditional forms from the sonnet to the sestina and glues them back together with a new restless urgency, leaving us with poems that are both political and profoundly personal.

— Staff
Language
English
Pages
112
Series
Penguin Poets
Keywords
Poetry | African American & Black; Poetry | Subjects & Themes | General

Praise for: So to Speak

Rating: 4 - Recommended
Jen says: I love the poems in SO TO SPEAK for their urgency and their (literal) subversion. Hayes disassembles traditional forms from the sonnet to the sestina and glues them back together with a new restless urgency, leaving us with poems that are both political and profoundly personal.