Description
In Wade in the Water, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tracy K. Smith’s signature voice – inquisitive, lyrical and wry – turns over what it means to be a citizen, a mother and an artist in a culture arbitrated by wealth, men and violence. The various connotations of the title, taken from a spiritual once sung on the Underground Railroad which smuggled slaves to safety in 19th-century America, resurface throughout the book, binding past and present together. Collaged voices and documents recreate both the correspondence between slave owners and the letters sent home by African Americans enlisted in the US Civil War. Survivors’ reports attest to the experiences of recent immigrants and refugees. Accounts of near-death experiences intertwine with the modern-day fallout of a corporation’s illegal pollution of a major river and the surrounding land; and, in a series of beautiful lyrical pieces, the poet’s everyday world and the growth and flourishing of her daughter are observed with a tender and witty eye. Marrying the contemporary and the historical to a sense of the transcendent, haunted and holy, this is a luminous book by one of America’s essential poets.
Having Tracey with us for one of our VERVE specials in 2019 was an absolute joy. It’s wonderful to see her getting all the credit she deserves.
Price £8.99
ISBN: 9780141987842
Date: 3rd April 2018
Format: Paperback
Extent: 96 pp
POETRY
