[insert] boy

Winner, Kate Tufts Discovery Award, 2016 Winner, John C Zacharis Award 2016 from Ploughshares Winner, Lambda Literary Award, Gay Poetry, 2015 Finalist, Norma Farber First Book Award, Poetry Society of America, 2015 Finalist, Debulitzer, 2015 Chosen by Don Share for Boston Globe's Best Poetry Books, 2014 Danez Smith's writing is not safe. How can one's writing be safe when their life is constantly in danger? In their debut poetry collection [insert] boy, Smith calls for a world where black boys and men are worshipped instead of feared, a world in which they live long enough to "feel the settling of joints, the experience of bones" to "die ninety & beautiful / & the causes more normal." In [insert] boy, Smith writes intimately about their complex relationship to multiple forms of violence. Smith discusses domestic abuse in their family, the physical and emotional effects of rape, and being the target of racist and homophobic language. All of these experiences are based on their interactions with other men. They also includes a series of poems about their many attempts at healing, a constant process which unfolds throughout the book. The body is present on almost every page-particularly the mouth, knees, and hands. These three body parts often appear together in the same poem. In "King the Color of Space, Tower of Molasses & Marrow," Smith writes, "I want to kiss you. Not on your mouth, but on your most / secret scars, your ashy black & journeyed knees, // your ring finger, the trigger finger, those hands / the world fears so much." -H.Melt for Lambda Literary Review

About the Author :
Danez Smith is the author of four poetry collections including [insert] boy, Homie, Don't Call Us Dead and Bluff. They have won the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the Minnesota Book Award in Poetry, the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and have been a finalist for the NAACP Image Award in Poetry, the National Book Critic Circle Award, and the National Book Award. Danez's poetry and prose has been featured in Vanity Fair, The New York Times, The New Yorker, GQ, Best American Poetry and on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Danez is a member of the Dark Noise Collective. Former co-host of the Webby nominated podcast VS (Versus), they are the recipient of fellowships from the Poetry Foundation, Princeton, United States Artists, the McKnight Foundation, the Montalvo Arts Center, Cave Canem, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Danez has been featured as part of Forbes' annual 30 Under 30 list and is the winner of a Pushcart Prize. They live in Minneapolis near their people.

Review :
The poems of [insert] boy have need of the body-desire it and lament its mortality-but over and again they assert Smith's seemingly religious belief that every sound the body makes, every word and wail, is only possible through connection to some other plane of existence. This is a lovely, voice-driven book, singing high notes sharp as a switchblade. -Jericho Brown, Please and The New Testament Danez Smith lays down the gauntlet for all of us to speak our deepest truths with more elegance, more ferocity, and almost more beauty than a reader can bear. -Gabrielle Calvocoressi