Synopses & Reviews
"Johnson's
Red Summerstartles and impresses with its sheer range of vision, at one moment giving us a hushed, confessional poem, at another a poem of public, political consciousness.
Red Summergives us the stirring debut of a restorative new American voice."-Carl Phillips
This haunting debut collection explores a rash of race riots that swept the United States during the summer of 1919. With a tender lyrical quality, reminiscent of the blues, Johnson moves through trauma and personal catastrophe to champion the endurance of the human spirit. These poems are underscored by music so unsettling they leave the voices of the dead lingering in the ear.
"Burlesque"
Watch the fire undress him,
how flame fingers each button,
rolls back his collar, unzips him
without sweet talk or mystery.
See how the skin begins to gather
at his ankles, how it slips into
the embers, how it shimmers
beneath him, unshapen, iridescent,
as candlelight on a dark negligee.
Come, look at him, at all his goods,
how his whole body becomes song,
an aria of light, a psalm's kaleidoscope.
Listen as he lets loose an opus,
night's national anthem, the tune
you can't name, but can't stop humming.
There, he burns brilliant as a blue note.
Amaud Jamaul Johnsonis a former Wallace E. Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. His poems have appeared in New England Review, Rivendell, Poetry Daily, and other journals.
Amaud Jamaul Johnsonis a former Wallace E. Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford University. His poems have appeared in New England Review, Rivendell, Poetry Daily, From the Fishouse, and other journals. He teaches creative writing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Synopsis
A brilliant African-American poet writes of lynching, domestic abuse and love as he examines the race riots that swept the United States in 1919 in haunting, passionate poems, marked by a tender lyrical quality inspired by the blues.
"Equally confident within the lyric and narrative modes, Johnson's Red Summer startles and impresses with its sheer range of vision, at one moment giving us a hushed, confessional poem, at another a poem of public, political consciousness... Johnson speaks from a space he describes at one point as "between gravity and god"--that is, past the provable, material world, but just shy of any clear confirmation of prayer or faith--and it's a particular kind of faith that these poems at once enact and point to, what Robert Hayden called "The deep immortal human wish, /the timeless will," the will to believe. Johnson's poems remind us that the human record is at last a mixed one: violence, shame, betrayal, and fear, but also joy, courage, love and, yes, hope. Red Summer gives us the stirring debut of a restorative new American voice."--Carl Phillips
Synopsis
Poetry. RED SUMMER, Amaud Jamaul Johnson's haunting debut collection, explores a rash of race riots that swept the United States during the summer of 1919. With a tender lyrical quality, reminiscent of the blues, Johnson moves through trauma and personal catastrophe to champion the endurance of the human spirit: "Come, look at him, at all his goods,/ how his whole body becomes song,/ an aria of light, a psalm's kaleidoscope." "Johnson's RED SUMMER startles and impresses with its sheer range of vision, at one moment giving us a hushed, confessional poem, at another a poem of public, political consciousness"--Carl Phillips.
About the Author
Amaud Jamaul Johnson was born and raised in Compton, California, and educated at Howard University and Cornell University. He was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford, and a Cave Canem Fellow. His collection, Red Summer, won the 2005 Dorset Prize from Tupelo Press and was published by Tupelo in spring 2006. Johnson is an assistant professor of English in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.