Bluff by Danez Smith

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 Smith’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 Paul’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 – those given and made – are burning. In this collection, Smith turns to honesty, hope, rage and imagination to envision futures that seem possible.
 
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'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 ... It’s as though the world is a scattered puzzle that Danez analyses and bears witness to' - Yomi Sode, author of Manorism