Ms. Rankine said that “part of documenting the micro-aggressions is to understand where the bigger, scandalous aggressions come from.” So much racism is unconscious and springs from imagined fears, she said. “It has to do with who gets pulled over, who gets locked up. You have to look not directly, but indirectly.”
— from “A Poetry Personal and Political,” in The New York Times, 11/28/2014
Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric (Graywolf Press) was longlisted for the 2014 National Book Awards on Sept. 16. The shortlist will be announced on October 15 and the winners on Nov. 19. In addition to Rankine’s Citizen, the full poetry longlist includes:
Linda Bierds, Roget’s Illusion; Brian Blanchfield, A Several World; Louise Glück, Faithful and Virtuous Night; Edward Hirsch, Gabriel: A Poem; Fanny Howe, Second Childhood; Maureen N. McLane, This Blue; Fred Moten, The Feel Trio; Spencer Reece, The Road to Emmaus; Mark Strand, Collected Poems
The poetry judges include Eileen Myles, Katie Peterson, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Robert Polito, and Paisley Rekdal.
Citizen: An American Lyric will hit bookstores on October 7.
(Source: nationalbook.org)
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