Hana Zittel Bluff by Danez Smith (2024) “there is no poem greater than feeding someone there is no poem wiser than kindness” Danez Smith opens their 2024 collection with one of the three poems titled anti poetica. This beginning marks the work with a recognition that poetry cannot save us, cannot defeat the state, and that there is “no poem to free you.” Bluff was written as the world took a drastic turn into the global pandemic and after George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the twin city to Smith’s hometown of St. Paul. Capturing this moment Smith writes: being (Black) feels like a lot right now. they shot a man then they shot the people mourning the man. they shot a man while he was a. handcuffed b. walking away c. already dead the terrorists i fear played ball with the cops or they is the cops. i ain’t got much left to give This vital, powerful collection remains so urgent today with each poem invoking painful memories and forcing examination of our current reality. Smith reckons with state violence, white violence, oppression, and the omnipresent grief shadowing the American experience. They explore multiple structural forms in Bluff, creating a range of visual experiences with the written word. Heartbreaking and No. 146 dire, this collection is also marked with a sense of fortitude and survival. Of the poets capturing our time through prose, not many feel as right to read in our current moment as Smith, and this collection in particular reflects the cruelty of the present paired with Smith’s characteristically magnificent writing. Danez Smith’s Bluff was recognized as a best poetry collection of 2024 by multiple literary organizations including Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and The New York Public Library. Drome by Jesse Lonergan (2025) Through a largely wordless graphic novel, Jesse Lonergan builds a vast universe and creation myth tracing humankind’s imagined origins. Created by a starry, horned god, the first human emerges from the ground when a seedlike capsule dropped from the heavens to earth. Almost immediately, the creation of life leads to chaos, violence and war. Another god critiques the destruction caused by the living, and in response, the horned god responsible for creation sends an elemental demigod with connection to the water to control the chaos of humanity. What follows is a violent, gory epic of the battle between civilization and the divine. Honored as one of the best graphic novels of 2025 by multiple publications including The Washington Post and The New York Public Library, Drome feels like a refreshingly different and monumental achievement in the medium. Lonergan plays with traditional comic book layouts and frames to reshape linear storytelling and reader expectations. Combined with his captivating drawing style, this experimental form and expansive sci-fi storytelling has resulted in a legendary graphic novel accomplishment.
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