Bluff

A Time Magazine ‘100 Must-Read Books of 2024’
’[In Bluff], Smith asks: How can one read poetry at a time like this? … And yet, within Bluff, there are almost 150 pages of poetry begging to be read—haunting, grief-stricken, hopeful poetry’

* Time Magazine, 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 *
‘I didn’t think Danez Smith could get any more brilliant. I was wrong. A book that whispers to your bones. This is a book I will keep open. There is too much inside to ever let it close. You will want to underline, to highlight, to heart almost every line. Yes, everybody should read this book; not only for what is said, but for the impeccable, experimental and essential poetry in which it is written. This is one of the best books of poetry I’ve read: buy it for anyone you love’ * Hollie McNish *
‘Smith’s interrogation of poetry’s complicity in suffering is expressed in brilliantly crafted, rhythmically complex verse’ * Rebecca Tamás, Guardian *
Danez Smith is one of the most important American poets of our age… Bluff’s vantage point is dark and original and foregrounds the historical significance of this time of racial reckonings… and perhaps signifies a new era of politically conscious poetry that rejects ideas of individual empowerment in favour of enlightenment * Observer, Poetry Book of the Month *
‘In this latest collection Smith returns to examinations of racism, of its insidious violence, and of resistance to it. But this new work also strikingly explores the idea of the poet’s culpability, about how we write about injustices without profiting from them, either financially or in deeper cultural terms. There is an honesty in the work that is at times overwhelming, a book too hot to touch. This is Smith’s gift, this search for a sense of truth - or even justice - in a world without much of either. Inventive, restless, awe struck, and grieving, Smith pushes language and sonics like no other poet. In their steepled hands, poems become prayers to a god we are afraid to look at. It might be too early to declare, but I don’t think so. Bluff is my book of the year. Absolutely breathtaking’ * Joelle Taylor, author of C+nto & Othered Poems *
‘Bluff is a gripping collection that breaks the fourth wall. It is cathartic in its outpouring, inviting the reader to join, and be present. It’s as though the world is a scattered puzzle that Danez analyses and bears witness to. A reality, a mourning, an abstractness in making sense of, and motions to piece together’ * Yomi Sode, author of Manorism *
Uncompromising. Devastating. Ever radical. Danez Smith’s latest poetry collection, Bluff, proliferates with defiant imaginaries * Big Issue *
Ever inventive and tender, here Smith’s piercing honesty is sharper than ever * Financial Times *