Staff Pick
This book makes my heart happy. It’s a national treasure of what Kwame calls “an unbridled selfie.” These are the best black poets writing today and saying the very best things. As Mahogany Browne says, “Praise [these] hands & throats/each incantation, a jubilee of a people dreaming wildly.” Recommended By Marianne T, Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A breathtaking new poetry collection on hope, heart, and heritage from the most prominent and promising Black poets and writers of our time, edited by Why Fathers Cry at Night author and #1 New York Times bestseller Kwame Alexander.
In this comprehensive and vibrant poetry anthology, bestselling author and poet Kwame Alexander curates a collection of anthems for our time, at turns tender and piercing, and deeply inspiring throughout. Featuring work from well-loved poets such as Claudia Rankine, Ross Gay, Jericho Brown, Warsan Shire, Amanda Gorman, Terrance Hayes, and Nikki Giovanni, This is the Honey is a rich and abundant offering of language from the poets giving voice to generations of resilient joy.
This essential collection, in the tradition of Dudley Randall's The Black Poets and E. Ethelbert Miller's In Search of Color Everywhere, contains poems exploring joy, love, origin, resistance, and praise. Jacqueline A.Trimble likens "Black woman joy" with indigo, tassels, foxes, and peacock plumes. Tyree Day, Nate Marshall, and Elizabeth Acevedo reflect on the meaning of "home" through food, from Cuban rice and beans to fried chicken gizzards. Clint Smith, Rachel Long, and Cameron Awkward-Rich enfold us in their intimate musings on love and devotion. From "jewels in the hand" (Patricia Spears Jones) to "butter melting in small pools in the hearts" (Elizabeth Alexander), This is the Honey drips with poignant and delightful imagery, music and raised fists. Marilyn Nelson puts it this way in "How I Discovered Poetry: " "It was like soul-kissing, the way the words / filled my mouth."
This is the Honey is definitive, fresh, and deeply moving, a must-have for any lover of language and a gift for our time.
About the Author
Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, publisher, two-time Emmy-nominated writer/producer, and #1 New York Times bestselling author of thirty-nine books, including Why Fathers Cry at Night: A Memoir in Love Poems, Recipes, Letters, and Remembrances, The Door of No Return, and Light for the World to See: A Thousand Words on Race and Hope. A regular contributor to NPR's Morning Edition, Alexander is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2016 and 2020 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award and the 2017 inaugural Conroy Legacy Award. In 2018, he founded the publishing imprint Versify and opened the Barbara E. Alexander Memorial Library and Health Clinic in Ghana, as a part of the Literacy Empowerment Action Project (LEAP), an international literacy program he co-founded. You can listen to his podcast Why Fathers Cry and find him online at KwameAlexander.com.