Instant #1 New York Times bestselling author
Author of How the Word is Passed- PEN America 2022 John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction Finalist / Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Awards / NBC News, one of 10 Books about Black History to Read in 2022 / A New York Times 10 Best Books of 2021/ A Time 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2021 / Named a Best Book of 2021 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Economist, Smithsonian, Esquire, Entropy, The Christian Science Monitor, WBEZ's Nerdette Podcast, TeenVogue, GoodReads, SheReads, BookPage, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Fathom Magazine, the New York Public Library, and the Chicago Public Library
An accessible and moving second book of poems from Clint Smith, the instant #1 New York Times bestselling author of How the Word is Passed.
The number one New York Times bestselling author, intellectual, and spoken word poet Clint Smith gives his devoted readers a collection of poetry straight from the heart. It is a meditation on the country he studies through the lens of all he has learned from fatherhood. The poems are manifestations of Smith's wisdom and latest observations, starting with the precarious birth of his son, to the current political and social state of the country, to childhood memories, and back again. Smith traverses the periods of his life from four different cities and the process of realizing what it means to build a life that orbits around his family. Amid all of it, he has watched as the country has been forced to confront the ugliest manifestations of itself, and he has thought about what it means to raise children amid the backdrop of political tumult.
Smith is a poet who uses the form to interrogate his own autobiography and the state of the country today, affording those who prefer reading poetry a shot of news, and those who normally seek out nonfiction, some lyrical beauty.
Above Ground is a lyrical, sometimes narrative work of poetry that follows from Smith's first book of poetry, Counting Descent.
Industry Reviews
"When poet and Atlantic staff writer Clint Smith became a dad, it changed how he saw the world. With his second book of poetry, the father of two attempts to put all of his complicated feelings surrounding parenthood into perspective. Whether it be the utter joy of watching his children make new discoveries or the heartbreak of knowing you can't always protect your little ones from social injustice, the author of How the Word is Passed doesn't sugarcoat the emotional rollercoaster that most parents are on. Above Ground is a beautiful meditation not only on Smith's own journey as a dad, but also on the effect our ever-changing world has on the way we raise our children."--Time, "23 Most Anticipated Books of 2023"
"Clint's Smith's Above Ground gives us one of our most urgent writers at the height of his powers. With these poems, Smith's crystalline lyric illuminates every word with love's deep regard. It's so nourishing, the scope and hope and breadth of Smith's tenderness. I recommend this book for everyone who has ever been a parent or a child, in love or beloved. I recommend it to everyone who has ever felt like a stranger inside of history, inside of a nation, or inside their own heart."--Kaveh Akbar, author of Pilgrim Bell
"I think there is an emergent theory, and maybe also a demand, when Clint Smith considers the brutalizing facts and language of war almost alongside a reverie about sprinkling sand on his baby's feet; when he mourns the long and brutal and ongoing history of American slavery almost alongside making French toast with the kids or dancing until the whole family falls down. When he makes us witness the most incomprehensibly awful (and daily) brutalities not only beside but almost in tandem with the most incomprehensibly tender (and daily) actions of care. It's a theory, and a demand, to which I think we must pay very close attention."--Ross Gay, author of Inciting Joy
"Clint Smith's poems make palpable the soap-bubble thinness of borders--the contingent boundaries of love and loss, past and present, sanctuary and violence, 'us' and 'them.' With inextinguishable generosity and abundant wisdom, he shows us the linkages that both bind and divide us--as family, as community, as nation, as world: 'The river that gives us water to drink is the same one that might wash us away.' I am so grateful for these luminous poems.
--Monica Youn, author of Blackacre
"I'm so grateful that Clint Smith's poems remind us of our interdependence on each other--on chrysanthemums, jellyfish, plankton, to note just a few of his magnificent poetic negotiations--all while turning his wide and generous eyes to fatherhood. This book is an illumination I sorely needed of both the outdoors and the quotidian--a joyful embrace and legacy of bright language and poignant questions."--Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of World of Wonders
