Reviews of The Body's Question

“This is a smart, daring first book of poems. Driven by Smith’s raging desire of imagination, many of these often quiet poems describe something that’s not there with deft grammar reaching toward possibility. Simple language, yet deceptively striking, and intelligent poems.
—Listed as one of eight best poetry books in Black Issues Book Review

“Smith takes a counterintuitive stance on everything from race to adolescence.” —SAVOY

“This is a rich collection of stories, histories, and moments that glow with the clean, direct language of a charming new voice. Attuned to the music of the streets – and to her heart – Smith is nevertheless attentive to craft, always aware of the integrity of the line. The result is poetry that is seductive yet powerful, subtle yet certain.” —Library Journal

“A terrific book, well-crafted, surprising, intelligent, questioning, ambitious in its scope and brilliant in realizing that ambition.” —Kevin Young

“The Body's Question is an answer to pure passion, but the beauty is that the brain isn’t divorced from the body. The strength of character in these marvelous poems delights and questions. Here’s a voice that can weave beauty and terror into one breath, and the unguarded revelations are never verbal striptease.” —Yusef Komunyakaa

“How delightful it is to fall under the lucid and quite more than lovely spell of Tracy K. Smith’s debut collection. Smith’s work is deceptively plainspoken, but these are poems that are powerfully wrought, inspiring in all the clarity of their many gospel truths. The Body's Question announces a remarkable new voice, brilliantly bundled, ingeniously belted down.” —Lucie Brock-Broido