Jackson, Major (Vanderbilt University)

Roll Deep: Poems Jackson, Major (Vanderbilt University)

Publisher Marketing: In his fourth collection, a breakthrough volume, Major Jackson appropriates the vernacular notion of rolling deep to capture the spirit of aesthetic travel that defines these forceful new poems and brazenly announces his steady accretion of literary and artistic influences, both formal and experimental his crew. The confident and radiant poems in Roll Deep address a range of topics, most prominently human intimacy and war. And like his best work to date, these poems create new experiences with language owed to Jackson s willingness to once again seek a rhythmic sound that expresses the unique realities of the twenty-first century with humor and understanding. Whether set in Nairobi, Madrid, or Greece, the poems are sensuously evocative and unapologetically with-it, in their effort to build community across borders of language and style. From Urban Renewal, The Dadaab Suite: I have come to Dadaab like an acto on a press release, unprepared for the drained face of famine-fleeing refugees, my craft s glamou dimmed by hundreds of infant graves, childre whose lolling heads final drop landed on their mothers backs like soft stones. What beauty can I spell i this swelter of dust" Review Citations:

Library Journal 06/01/2015 pg. 107 (EAN 9780393246896, Hardcover)

Booklist 07/01/2015 pg. 17 (EAN 9780393246896, Hardcover)

Publishers Weekly 07/20/2015 (EAN 9780393246896, Hardcover)

Contributor Bio:  Jackson, Major Major Jacksonis the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, among other honors. He teaches at the University of Vermont and is the poetry editor of the Harvard Review. His first book, Leaving Saturn, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award. Each of his last two collections, Hoops and Holding Company, was a finalist for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature Poetry. He lives in South Burlington, Vermont.