HOMIE
Homie is Danez Smith’s magnificent anthem about the saving grace of friendship. Rooted in the loss of one of Smith’s close friends, this book comes out of the search for joy and intimacy within a nation where both can seem scarce and getting scarcer. In poems of rare power and generosity, Smith acknowledges that in a country overrun by violence, xenophobia, and disparity, and in a body defined by race, queerness, and diagnosis, it can be hard to survive, even harder to remember reasons for living. But then the phone lights up, or a shout comes up to the window,
Homie is Danez Smith’s magnificent anthem about the saving grace of friendship. Rooted in the loss of one of Smith’s close friends, this book comes out of the search for joy and intimacy within a nation where both can seem scarce and getting scarcer. In poems of rare power and generosity, Smith acknowledges that in a country overrun by violence, xenophobia, and disparity, and in a body defined by race, queerness, and diagnosis, it can be hard to survive, even harder to remember reasons for living. But then the phone lights up, or a shout comes up to the window, and family—blood and chosen—arrives with just the right food and some redemption. Part friendship diary, part bright elegy, part war cry, Homie is the exuberant new book written for Danez and for Danez’s friends and for you and for yours.
- Graywolf Press
- Paperback
- January 2020
- 104 Pages
- 9781644450109
Buy the Book
$16.00
About Danez Smith
Danez Smith is the author of Don’t Call Us Dead, winner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection and a finalist for the National Book Award, and [insert] boy, winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. They live in Minneapolis.
Praise
“The radiance of Homie arrives like a shock, like found money, like a flower fighting through concrete. . . . This is a book full of the turbulence of thought and desire, piloted by a writer who never loses their way.”—New York Times
“[Homie] offers the opportunity to witness ‘the miracle of other people’s lives’ and will challenge you to consider how and why that miracle is dismissed in countless daily acts of racial aggression.”—Star Tribune
“[Homie] is a collection that confirms Smith’s great talent.”—Buzzfeed
“Danez Smith is a powerhouse of poetry. . . . Their language is always electric, and Homie is no exception. The ways in which Smith combines syntax, humor, reverence and irreverence are stunning, and this collection of odes is bound to be a widespread poetry favorite.” —Lit Hub
“A collection as dazzling as it is bighearted. . . . Dynamic, breathtaking, and utterly brilliant, these poems are not only most magnificent weapons but also salves to share and songs to shout at the top of one’s lungs. A transcendent collection sure to bolster Smith’s status as a poetry icon.”—Booklist, starred review
Excerpt
& colin kaepernick is my president, who kneels on the air
bent toward a branch, throwing apples down to the children & vets
& rihanna is my president, walking out of global summitswith wine glass in
hand, our taxes returned in goldto dust our faces into coins & my
mama is my president, her grace stuntson amazing, brown hands breaking brown bread
overmouths of the hungry until there are none unfed & my
grandma is my president & her cabinet is her cabinetcause she knows to trust what the pan knowshow the skillet wins the war
—from “my president”