{"product_id":"dark-testament-blackout-poems-9781250854360","title":"Dark Testament: Blackout Poems","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn this extraordinary collection, the award-winning poet Crystal Simone Smith gives voice to the mournful dead, their lives unjustly lost to violence, and to the grieving chorus of protestors in today's Black Lives Matter movement, in search of resilience and hope.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith poems found within the text of George Saunders's \u003ci\u003eLincoln in the Bardo\u003c\/i\u003e, Crystal Simone Smith embarks on an uncompromising exploration of collective mourning and crafts a masterwork that resonates far beyond the page. These poems are visually stark, a gathering of gripping verses that unmasks a dialogue of tragic truths--the stories of lives taken unjustly and too soon. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBold and deeply affecting, \u003ci\u003eDark Testament\u003c\/i\u003e is a remarkable reckoning with our present moment, a call to action, and a plea for a more just future. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAlong with the poems, \u003ci\u003eDark Testament \u003c\/i\u003eincludes a stirring introduction by the author that speaks to the content of the poetry, a Q\u0026amp;A with George Saunders, and a full-color photo-insert that commemorates victims of unlawful killings with photographs of memorials that have been created in their honor. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"I love this tremendously skillful, timely, and dazzling repurposing of passages of my novel, \u003ci\u003eLincoln in the Bardo\u003c\/i\u003e. Crystal Simone Smith has, with her amazing ear and heart, found, in that earlier grief, a beautiful echo for our time.\" --George Saunders, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author of \u003ci\u003eLincoln in the Bardo \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eTenth of December \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Written in response to the murder of George Floyd...this touching memorial to the Black lives lost to systemic racism is a rousing homage to those protesting in their honor, who refuse to let these deaths be in vain.\" - \u003ci\u003ePublisher's Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCrystal Simone Smith\u003c\/b\u003e is a poet, indie-publisher, and educator. She is the author of three poetry chapbooks and co-authored, \u003ci\u003eOne Window's Light, A Collection of Haiku\u003c\/i\u003e, edited by Lenard D. Moore (2017), which won the Haiku Society of America's Merit Book Award for Best Haiku Anthology. Her latest collection of haiku, \u003ci\u003eEbbing Shore\u003c\/i\u003e, won the Haiku Foundation Touchstone Distinguished Book Award (2022). Her work has appeared in numerous journals including Prairie Schooner, POETRY Magazine, Crab Orchard Review, Frogpond, and Modern Haiku. In 2020, she received a Duke University Humanities Unbounded Fellowship. She writes poetry about the human condition and social change. \u003cb\u003ecrystalsimonesmith.com\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Henry Holt \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50625645674770,"sku":"9781250854360","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_11f6c08c-2f52-44da-9a83-6e0cf38a9560.jpg?v=1732635002","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/dark-testament-blackout-poems-9781250854360","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}