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Best Barbarian: Poems

Griffin Poetry Prize

Best Barbarian: Poems

Roger William Reeves

This is a poetry collection that moves between myth, family history, Black experience, and the violence of the present while pushing insistently toward freedom. Its references range widely across the literary and popular imagination, connecting private pain to a larger historical frame.

race and identityloss and family historyviolence and freedommyth and contemporary culture

Work Information

It opens a path between myth and the present, and gives shape to a voice moving toward freedom.

Best Barbarian gathers poems about climate crisis, anti-Black racism, migration, family loss, love, and desire. Moving from Beowulf's Grendel to Alice Coltrane and from Walt Whitman to Beyoncé, it pulls the poetic tradition into the present and draws readers in with tense, musical energy.

Review Summaries

  • Its wide-ranging references and sharp voice draw strong praise. Readers value the way historical weight meets intimate feeling, while some find the density demanding.

Book Information

Publisher
W W Norton & Co Inc
Published
2022-03-22
Pages
120 pages
Language
英語
Size
16.26 x 1.78 x 21.84 cm
ISBN-13
9780393609332
ISBN-10
0393609332
Price
4781 JPY
Category
洋書/Literature & Fiction/Poetry/American

Best BarbarianBeowulfBest BarbarianAeneidBest Barbarian

Roger Reeves is the author of King Me and the recipient of a Whiting Award, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, among other honors. He lives in Austin, Texas.

Reviews

  • Superb!

  • It’s inspiring the was Reeves finds bits from here and there to connect his poetry to ancient history, music, and the horrors of what has happened and is still happening to his people.

  • Stunning. Brilliant. Often poignant. Transformative. A deeply affecting work.

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