The Tradition (Paperback)
Staff Reviews
I first read this collection as part of a poetry seminar, and it fully cemented my love for poetry after not reading it in a long time. In it, you get to experience Brown's invented form, the duplex, which even inspired me to write my own imitations. I find Brown's poetry to be powerful in its approach to the issues of systemic racism and violence in American society today. In my personal opinion, this is a must-read of contemporary American poetry.
— From Molly
The Tradition explores cultural threats on black bodies, resistance, and the interplay of desire and privilege in a dangerous era.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for The Tradition, Jericho Brown earned his PhD in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Houston. He is the recipient of the Whiting Writers Award and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and the Krakow Poetry Seminar in Poland. His first book, Please (New Issues), won the American Book Award. His second book, The New Testament, won won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was named one of the best of the year by Library Journal. Brown is the director of the Creative Writing Program at Emory University and lives in Atlanta, Georgia.