ISBN: 1555973914 9781555973919

Category: Literary Criticism / Poetry

Page count: 85

<p><b>The debut collection by the Poet Laureate of the United States</b><br><br><i>* Winner of the 2002 Cave Canem Poetry Prize</i><i> *</i><br><br><i>You are pure appetite. I am pure</i><br><i>Appetite. You are a phantom</i><br><i>In that far-off city where daylight</i><br><i>Climbs cathedral walls, stone by stolen stone.</i><br> --from "Self-Portrait as the Letter Y"<br><br><i>The Body's Question</i> by Tracy K. Smith received the 2002 Cave Canem Poetry Prize for the best first book by an African-American poet, selected by Kevin Young. Confronting loss, historical intersections with race and family, and the threshold between childhood and adulthood, Smith gathers courage and direction from the many disparate selves encountered in these poems, until, as she writes, "I was anyone I wanted to be."</p>