The Tradition (poetry collection)

The Tradition

L. Ralphi Burgess, You're in the Middle of the World, ca. 2017, acrylic and mixed media, 18" × 25"[1]
Author	Jericho Brown
Audio read by	JD Jackson
Cover artist	Lauren Ralphi Burgess
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Poetry
Publisher	Copper Canyon Press
Publication date	April 2, 2019
Media type	Print (paperback and hardcover), e-book
Pages	110 (paperback)
Awards	Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (2020)
ISBN	978-1-55659-486-1 (paperback)
OCLC	1113894902
Dewey Decimal	811/.6
LC Class	PS3602.R699 A6 2019
Preceded by	The New Testament

The Tradition is a 2019 poetry collection by Jericho Brown.^[2]

The collection won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.^[3] Judges of the prize called the book "a collection of masterful lyrics that combine delicacy with historical urgency in their loving evocation of bodies vulnerable to hostility and violence."^[4]

Contents

I

• "Ganymede"
• "As a Human Being"
• "Flower"
• "The Microscopes"
• "The Tradition"
• "Hero"
• "After Another Country"
• "The Water Lilies"
• "Foreday in the Morning"
• "The Card Tables"
• "Bullet Points"
• "Duplex"
• "The Trees"
• "Second Language"
• "After Avery R. Young"
• "A Young Man"

II

• "Duplex"
• "Riddle"
• "Good White People"
• "Correspondence"
• "Trojan"
• "The Legend of Big and Fine"
• "The Peaches"
• "Night Shift"
• "Shovel"
• "The Long Way"
• "Dear Whiteness"
• "Of the Swan"
• "Entertainment Industry"
• "Stake"
• "Layover"

III

• "Duplex"
• "Of My Fury"
• "After Essex Hemphill"
• "Stay"
• "A.D."
• "Turn You Over"
• "The Virus"
• "The Rabbits"
• "Monotheism"
• "Token"
• "The Hammers"
• "I Know What I Love"
• "Crossing"
• "Deliverance"
• "Meditations at the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park"
• "Dark"
• "Duplex"
• "Thighs and Ass"
• "Cakewalk"
• "Stand"
• "Duplex: Cento"

Reception

At the review aggregator website Book Marks, which assigns individual ratings to book reviews from mainstream literary critics, the collection received a cumulative "Rave" rating based on 18 reviews: 12 "Rave" reviews, 5 "Positive" reviews, and 1 "Mixed" review.^[5]

Publishers Weekly called it "searing" and wrote that Jericho's duplex form "yields compelling results".^[6]

Elizabeth Lund of The Washington Post called it "compelling and forceful because it wonderfully balances the dark demands of memory and an indomitable strength."^[7]

Awards and recognition

• 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, winner^[8]
• 2019 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, finalist^[9]
• 2019 National Book Award for Poetry, longlist^[10][11][12]
• 2019 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, finalist^[13]

Publication history

• The Tradition (paperback). Copper Canyon Press (published April 2, 2019). 2019. ISBN 978-1-55659-486-1. 110pp.
• The Tradition (hardcover). Copper Canyon Press (published February 4, 2020). 4 February 2020. ISBN 978-1-55659-602-5. 96pp.

References

This page was last edited on 22 November 2023, at 20:08