Counting Descent

Winner, 2017 Black Caucus of the American Library Association Literary Award Finalist, 2017 NAACP Image Awards 'One Book One New Orleans' 2017 Book Selection Published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, New Republic, Boston Review, The Guardian, The Rumpus, The Academy of American Poets "So many of these poems just blow me away. Incredibly beautiful and powerful." ―Michelle Alexander, Author of The New Jim Crow "Counting Descent is a tightly-woven collection of poems whose pages act like an invitation. The invitation is intimate and generous and also a challenge; are you up to asking what is blackness? What is black joy? How is black life loved and lived? To whom do we look to for answers? This invitation is not to a narrow street, or a shallow lake, but to a vast exploration of life. And you're invited. --Elizabeth Acevedo, Author of Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths "These poems shimmer with revelatory intensity, approaching us from al