Field Study

Winner of the 2020 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets

"Layered, complex, and infinitely compelling, Chetâla Sebreeâs Field Study is a daring exploration of the self and our interactions with othersâ"a meditation on desire, race, loss and survival." --Natasha Trethewey, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Memorial Drive

Chetâla Sebreeâs Field Study is a genre-bending exploration of black womanhood and desire, written as a lyrical, surprisingly humorous, and startlingly vulnerable prose poem

I am societyâs eraser shardsâ"bits used to fix other peopleâs sh*t, then discarded. Somehow still a wet nurse, from actual babes to Alabama special elections.

Seeking to understand the fallout of her relationship with a white man, the poet Chetâla Sebree attempts a field study of herself. Scientifically, field studies are objective collections of raw data, devoid of emotion. But during the course of a stunning lyric poem, Sebreeâs control over her own field study unravels as she attempts to understand the depth of her feelings in response to the data of her life. The result is a singular and provocative piece of writing, one that is formally inventive, playfully candid, and soul-piercingly sharp.

Interspersing her reflections with Tweets, quips from TV characters, and excerpts from the Black thinkersâ"Audre Lorde, Maya Angelou, Tressie McMillan Cottomâ"that inspire her, Sebree analyzes herself through the lens of a society that seems uneasy, at best, with her very presence. She grapples with her attraction to, and rejection of, whiteness and white men; probes the malicious manifestation of colorism and misogynoir throughout American history and media; and struggles with, judges, and forgives herself when she has more questions than answers. âEven as I accrue these notes,â Sebree writes, âIâm still not sure Iâve found the pulse.â

A poem of love, heartbreak, womanhood, art, sex, Blackness, and Americaâ"sometimes all at onceâ"Field Study throbs with feeling, searing and tender. With uncommon sensitivity and precise storytelling, Sebree makes meaning out of messiness and malaise, breathing life into a scientific study like no other.