Watch Your Language
Visual and Literary Reflections on a Century of American Poetry
“Dazzling . . . a verbal and visual feast that defies genres.” —The Washington Post
“Hayes [is] one of the best and most important poets now writing.” —Craig Morgan Teicher, Poetry
From the National Book Award–winning author of Lighthead, Terrance Hayes, a fascinating collection of graphic reviews and illustrated prose addressing the last century of American poetry—to be published simultaneously with his latest poetry collection, So to Speak
Canonized, overlooked, and forgotten African American poets star in Terrance Hayes's brilliant contemplations of personal, canonical, and allegorical literary development. Proceeding from Toni Morrison's aim to expand the landscape of literary imagination in Playing in the Dark ("I want to draw a map, so to speak, of a critical geography"), Watch Your Language charts a lyrical geography…