The Forward prizewinner’s portrait of racism in the US is not just realistic, it captures a poetic truth beyond facts
Claudia Rankine’s collection of tense lyric essays Citizen this week won the Forward prize for best collection. The book recounts both quotidian racist “microaggressions” and internationally reported police brutality and violence targeting black Americans. I teach a course on women’s writing, and we read Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Adrienne Rich, and CD Wright’s One With Others, but it is Citizen that sticks with my students.
Related: Claudia Rankine's Citizen wins Forward poetry prize
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