Congratulations to my brilliant wife Patricia Smith, who just received a starred review from Publishers Weekly for her forthcoming poetry collection, Incendiary Art.
The review says in part: “Using the 1955 murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till as her anchor, Smith explores how the lives of black Americans get cut short by racism, particularly by white fear of black masculinity. . . . She blends lyric with news report to write of police brutality and the murders of black men, women, and children by unaccountable police officers. A refrain rings out, ‘The gun said: I just had an accident.’ Smith exhibits razor-sharp linguistic sensibilities that give her scenes a cinematic flair and her lines a momentum that buoys their emotional weight. . . . Smith’s urgent collection lives up to its title, burning bright and urgent as a bonfire.”
It will be published in February, but can be ordered in advance here.
