The New Book: Poems, Letters, Blurbs, and Things

(Hardback)

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Nikki Giovannis extraordinary final collectiona landmark of American literaturespeaks to the fury of our current political moment while reflecting on the tragedies and triumphs of her early life.

For decades, Nikki Giovannis poetry has been at the forefront of American culture. The New Book is a towering work of protest against the divisions of our time, leavened with moments of joy and reflection about her indelible legacy, her family history, and the small pleasures of her richly lived life.

InThe New Book,Nikki Giovanni slashes at the ridiculousness of our cultural and political climate: We have no secrets/since the world shrunk/and the icebergs melted/and all the year books/are digitized./... and we press Like/or No Like/as if it mattered.

She remembers 2020 and its cataclysmic reckoning with police brutality and white supremacy: I do understand that republicans/Are cowards and so are those nazis/Cheering/And those kkk we now call police killing/Not to mention father and sons chasing unarmed Black men/and running their cars into crowds/Pretending they are brave or something/They are not only cowards/And nazis but evil fools/And who go to bed white/Wake up American/And hate themselves for having/To share this earth/They will not overcome/And we will not love them.

But also in the same poem: But what does 2020 mean to me/A chance to learn to open oysters/Talk to my friends/Catch up on my reading/Tell myself I am going to dust the house/Lie about it/...Enjoy my own company not to mention football/And remember there will be tomorrow/Because there will be/And evil will go and good will come/I am Black/We have seen much worse.

With this collection, which includes brief letters and short prose from her life as well as poetry, Giovanni reaffirms her place as a giant of literature, a canny truth-teller, an indispensable radical orator, and one of Americas preeminent cultural critics. It is a book to be savored, and shared.

"If there was a need for poetry that galvanized and inspired, there was also a demand for poetry that comforted and unified and Ms. Giovanni provided on both counts." The Washington Post

Author Bio

Nikki Giovanni (19432024), poet, activist, mother, grandmother, and educator, grew up in Tennessee and Ohio and graduated with honors from Fisk University in Nashville. The author of over thirty books, she was also the recipient of seven NAACP Image Awards, the Langston Hughes Medal for Outstanding Poetry, as well as thirty-one honorary degrees and an Emmy Award. She garnered her most unusual honor in 2007 when a South American bat speciesMicronycteris giovanniaewas named in celebration of her. A devoted teacher and honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., she spent thirty-five years as University Distinguished Professor of English at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.