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"In the poem 'Yard Talk,' G.E. Patterson writes of the 'hard love' black men express between each other, but the true conversation in the poem and in this stunning debut is with all of us. You will have to travel far to find a book that tackles the interior landscape of a black man with such ...

"In the poem 'Yard Talk,' G.E. Patterson writes of the 'hard love' black men express between each other, but the true conversation in the poem and in this stunning debut is with all of us. You will have to travel far to find a book that tackles the interior landscape of a black man with such tenderness and lyric power. Tug is the book I know had to come down the pike sooner or later. Reading it, I couldn't ignore the feeling that a fire was being lit under American Poetry." --Cornelius Eady "Many of the poems seem autobiographical. Yet, on second reading, one is not sure. Are these the stories of an ordinary black man's life, or is there a tug between several possible, even alternative, lives? .... I am so happy for this exploration which digs deep into the cracks between what we are and what we are supposed to be. Mr. Patterson, with all his love for play and invention, never forgets the serious tug of our painful history. Rather, he celebrates it by giving words to its complex and brilliant evolution." --Toi Derricotte "Tug is a hugely accomplished book. These poems are wide-ranging in voice, style, and epistemology. Surprising at so many turns, plangent. Here G.E. Patterson has made strange and lovely music of the highest order." --Elizabeth Alexander G.E. Patterson's awards include fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Minnesota State Arts Board.

A dazzling new collection by the former Poet Laureate of the United States. In these brilliant poems, Rita Dove treats us to a panoply of human endeavor, shot through with the electrifying jazz of her lyric elegance. From the opening sequence, "Cameos", to the civil rights struggle of the final ...

A dazzling new collection by the former Poet Laureate of the United States. In these brilliant poems, Rita Dove treats us to a panoply of human endeavor, shot through with the electrifying jazz of her lyric elegance. From the opening sequence, "Cameos", to the civil rights struggle of the final sequence, she explores the intersection of individual fate and history.