A volume in the Poets on Poetry series, which collects critical works by contemporary poets, gathering together the articles, interviews, and book reviews by which they have articulated the poetics of a new generation.

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A powerful novel about friendship, basketball, and one teen's mission to create a better life for his family. Written in the tradition of Jason Reynolds, Matt de la Pe a, and Walter Dean Myers, After the Shot Drops now has three starred reviews * "Belongs on the shelf alongside contemporary heavy-hitters like Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give, Brendan Kiely and Jason Reynolds's All-American Boys, and Nic Stone's Dear Martin."--School Library Journal, starred review Bunny and Nasir have been best friends forever, but when Bunny accepts an athletic scholarship across town, Nasir feels betrayed. While Bunny tries to fit in with his new, privileged peers, Nasir spends more time with his cousin, Wallace, who is being evicted. Nasir can't help but wonder why the neighborhood is falling over itself to help Bunny when Wallace is in trouble. When Wallace makes a bet against Bunny, Nasir is faced with an impossible decision--maybe a dangerous one. Told from alternating perspectives, After the Shot Drops is a heart-pounding story about the responsibilities of great talent and the importance of compassion.

"I had a real romance with this book." —Miranda July A highly anticipated collection, from the writer Maggie Nelson has called, “bracingly good...refreshing and welcome,” that explores the myriad ways in which desire and commodification intersect. From graffiti gangs and Grand Theft Auto to sugar daddies, Schopenhauer, and a deadly game of Russian roulette, in these essays, Chelsea Hodson probes her own desires to examine where the physical and the proprietary collide. She asks what our privacy, our intimacy, and our own bodies are worth in the increasingly digital world of liking, linking, and sharing. Starting with Hodson’s own work experience, which ranges from the mundane to the bizarre—including modeling and working on a NASA Mars mission— Hodson expands outward, looking at the ways in which the human will submits, whether in the marketplace or in a relationship. Both tender and jarring, this collection is relevant to anyone who’s ever searched for what the self is worth. Hodson’s accumulation within each piece is purposeful, and her prose vivid, clear, and sometimes even shocking, as she explores the wonderful and strange forms of desire. Tonight I'm Someone Else is a fresh, poetic debut from an exciting emerging voice, in which Hodson asks, “How much can a body endure?” And the resounding answer: "Almost everything."

Meet Tajon. Tajon is sixteen and black. He's tall and skinny, and he has dreadlocks. Tajon works hard and tries his best to be good. He does O.K. in school. He has plans. He's determined. Tajon is the kind of son who cares about his family. He's the kind of brother who stands up for his sister. He's the kind of kid who dreams big dreams to get himself and those he loves up and out of the hood. Tajon is the one who gets shot. Meet the Authors In March 2015, ten teen girls from Beacon House in Washington, DC started writing a novel during the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. They began with one central question: What really happens in a community when a black youth is the victim of violence by police? How are those lives affected? Each writer takes on the perspective of a central character - the victim, the police officer, the witness, the parent, the friend, the officer's kids - and examines how it feels to be a human being on all sides of this event. Their stories thoughtfully explore issues of race, violence, loyalty, and justice in a community torn apart but seeking connection. *** Ten teenage girls from Beacon House (beaconhousedc.org) in Washington, DC authored this book: J'yona, T'Asia, Makiya, Najae, Rose, Temil, Jonae, Jeanet, Serenity, and Reiyanna. They wrote and revised their work over the course of two years during workshops with Shout Mouse Press (shoutmousepress.org). All artwork is original by the authors. Some photography taken by the authors and produced in collaboration with Shootback (shootbackproject.org). Photography of protests and riots in Baltimore 2015 taken by DC teen Amir Price in conjunction with Critical Exposure (criticalexposure.org/news-and-events/press.) Learn more about the project, including author interviews, at ShoutMousePress.org.

*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2018 PEN/ROBERT W. BINGHAM PRIZE FOR DEBUT FICTION* *SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2018 WILLIAM SAROYAN INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR WRITING* Named a Best Book of 2017 by The San Francisco Chronicle Named one of Electric Literature’s 15 Best Short Story Collections of 2017 A stunningly original debut collection about lives across history marked by violence and longing. A brother and sister turn outlaw in a wild and brutal landscape. The daughter of a diplomat disappears and resurfaces across the world as a deadly woman of many names. A young Philadelphia boy struggles with the contradictions of privilege, violence, and the sway of an incarcerated father. A monk in sixteenth century England suffers the dissolution of his monastery and the loss of all that he held sacred. The characters in The Man Who Shot Out My Eye Is Dead, Benz's wildly imaginative debut, are as varied as any in recent literature, but they share a thirst for adventure which sends them rushing full-tilt toward the moral crossroads, becoming victims and perpetrators along the way. Riveting, visceral, and heartbreaking, Benz’s stories of identity, abandonment, and fierce love come together in a daring, arresting vision.

The reviews are in! This Is Where It Ends, the #1 New York Times bestseller and one of the Best Books of the Decade (Buzzfeed, Paste Magazine, BookRiot), "could break you." "I am speechless." "The saddest book I have ever read." "Literally tore my heart out." Go inside a heartbreaking fictional school shooting, minute-by-terrifying-minute. Everyone has a reason to fear the boy with the gun... 10:00 a.m.: The principal of Opportunity, Alabama's high school finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve. 10:02 a.m.: The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class. 10:03 a.m.: The auditorium doors won't open. 10:05 a.m.: Someone starts shooting. Over the course of 54 minutes, four students must confront their greatest hopes, and darkest fears, as they come face-to-face with the boy with the gun. In a world where violence in schools is at an all-time high and school shootings are a horrifyingly common reality for teenagers, This Is Where It Ends is a rallying cry to end the gun violence epidemic for good. Praise for This Is Where It Ends: A Buzzfeed Best Young Adult Book of the Decade A Paste Magazine Best Teen Book of the Decade A Book Riot Biggest YA Book of the Decade A Professional Book Nerds Best Book of the Decade A Bustle.com Most-Anticipated YA Novel A Goodreads YA Best Books Pick A Goodreads Choice Award Finalist for Young Adult Fiction Kids Indie Next List Pick "Marieke Nijkamp's brutal, powerful fictional account of a school shooting is important in its timeliness." —Bustle.com "A gritty, emotional, and suspenseful read and although fictionalized, it reflects on a problematic and harrowing issue across the nation." —Buzzfeed "A compelling, brutal story of an unfortunately all-too familiar situation: a school shooting. Nijkamp portrays the events thoughtfully, recounting fifty-four intense minutes of bravery, love, and loss." —BookRiot

The increasing ubiquity of gun violence has become the norm across the world and particularly in the United States, where we have begun to hear horror after horror on a daily basis. So much so that it has started to produce a numbing effect, a helplessness that allows us to hear the news and say, "Here we go again," and put it out of our mind. Gun violence is now something we expect to happen. SHOTis about people who have been shot and survived the experience. It portrays 101 survivors, aged 8 to 80, from all races and many ethnicities. They are the representatives of "survivorhood." Most were photographed in the location where they were shot. SHOTallows us to explore a dialogue about gun violence and how we are all vulnerable.

Taylor Schumann survived a school shooting, yet she was left with permanent wounds, both visible and invisible. Weaving her own incredible story into a larger conversation about gun violence in America, Taylor shares another painful truth: Christians have largely been silent on this issue. With compassion and honesty, she encourages readers to join her in taking action for a safer future.

I did get shot and it is my problem. A bullet fired at point-blank range, slammed into my chest, clipped my lung, narrowly missed my heart and lodged in my spine, paralyzing me from the chest down - and I had to deal with it. I still have to deal with it every day. That is my problem. Now, what is your problem? What do you have to deal with today - or every day? Do you have something lodged in you - maybe not in your spine, but perhaps in your heart or mind - that causes you pain and makes you feel paralyzed one way or another? What position are you taking relative to your problems? In other words, what is your attitude relative to your situation? Technically, that is what attitude is; it is simply a position.