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Bluff: A powerful new collection reckoning with America, protest and poetry itself

By (author) Danez Smith

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normal price: R 380.95

Price: R 342.95

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| book description |

A searing new collection from the Forward Prize-winning American poet about the year 2020, the year that the worldâ€™s gaze turned to Minneapolis â€“ Smith's own home. **A TIME MAGAZINE '100 Must-Read Books of 2024'** 'Bluff is my book of the year. Absolutely breathtaking' Joelle Taylor, author of C+NTO: + Othered Poems 'You will want to underline almost every line ... One of the best books of poetry I've read: buy it for anyone you love' Hollie McNish, author of Plum 'Gripping ... Itâ€™s as though the world is a scattered puzzle that Danez analyses and bears witness to' Yomi Sode, author of Manorism Written during the time the world came to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Minneapolis became the epicentre of protest following the murder of George Floyd, Bluff is Danez Smithâ€™s powerful reckoning with their responsibility as a poet and with their hometown. Smith brings a startling urgency to these poems, their questions demanding a new language, new textual shapes and a deep self-scrutiny. Ars poetica gives way to 'ars america'. A photographic collage makes clear the consequence of accepting mass shootings. A brilliant long poem maps the history of Minneapolis-Saint Paulâ€™s vibrant Rondo neighbourhood, before and after officials decided to run an interstate directly through it. Bluff is a manifesto about artistic resilience when the places we most love â€“ those given and made â€“ are burning. In this collection, Smith turns to honesty, hope, rage and imagination to envision futures that seem possible. PRAISE FOR DANEZ SMITH: â€˜A poet of exceptional linguistic exuberance, style and graceâ€™ Kayo Chingonyi, author of Kumukanda â€˜A writer who never loses their wayâ€™ New York Times 'Smithâ€™s ability to look death squarely in the eye and seize from it language that is fertile with myth, beauty and intellect is astonishing' Sandeep Parmar, Guardian