A brilliant new collection by Elizabeth Alexander, whose “poems bristle with the irresistible quality of a world seen fresh”—Rita Dove, The Washington Post
American Sublime
- “Alexander has deepened her voice and craft. . . exhibiting a lyric felicity and growing warmer as she makes ample use of irony.”—Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
Too many people have seen too much
and lived to tell, or not tell, or tell
with their silent, patterned bodies,
their glass eyes, gone legs, flower-printed flesh. . .
—from "Notes From"
In her fourth remarkable collection, Elizabeth Alexander voices the outcries, dreams, and histories of an African American tradition that goes back to the slave rebellion on the Amistad and to the artists’ canvases of nineteenth century America. In persona poems, historical narratives, jazz riffs, sonnets, elegies, and a sequence of ars poetica, American Sublime is Alexander’s most vivid and varied collection and affirms her place as one of America’s most lively and gifted writers.
and lived to tell, or not tell, or tell
with their silent, patterned bodies,
their glass eyes, gone legs, flower-printed flesh. . .
—from "Notes From"
In her fourth remarkable collection, Elizabeth Alexander voices the outcries, dreams, and histories of an African American tradition that goes back to the slave rebellion on the Amistad and to the artists’ canvases of nineteenth century America. In persona poems, historical narratives, jazz riffs, sonnets, elegies, and a sequence of ars poetica, American Sublime is Alexander’s most vivid and varied collection and affirms her place as one of America’s most lively and gifted writers.
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About the Author
Credit: CJ Gunther
Praise
- "[American Sublime] makes. . . . restrained promises and delivers lucidly."—Publishers Weekly
- "[American Sublime] is as much a description of the book's intentions as it is of the quality of the work."—Black Issues Book Review
- "American Sublime is Alexander's most vivid and varied collection. It affirms her place as one of Anerica's most lively and gifted writers."—Backlist
- "American Sublime establishes [Alexander's] place as one of America's most gifted writers."—Sanford Herald
