Punks: New & Selected Poems
by John Keene
- A 2023 National Bestselling Book - Poetry
- 5 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- National Book Award Honor 2022
The Song Cave (Dec 01, 2021)
Poetry, Paperback, 234 pages
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Description of Punks: New & Selected Poems by John Keene
A landmark collection of poetry by acclaimed fiction writer, translator, and MacArthur Fellow John Keene, PUNKS: NEW & SELECTED POEMS is a generous treasury in seven sections that spans decades and includes previously unpublished and brand new work. With depth and breadth, PUNKS weaves together historic narratives of loss, lust, and love. The many voices that emerge in these poems—from historic Black personalities, both familial and famous, to the poet’s friends and lovers in gay bars and bedrooms—form a cast of characters capable of addressing desire, oppression, AIDS, and grief through sorrowful songs that we sing as hard as we live. At home in countless poetic forms, PUNKS reconfirms John Keene as one of the most important voices in contemporary poetry.
John Keene’s PUNKS is utterly brilliant. The range, vision, depth and humanity he brings to the page are as galactic as Banneker’s astral wanderings, as crisp as the chordal cutting of a searching horn, as courageous and small as a nose wide open. Keene’s masterfully inventive inquiry of self and history is queered, Blackened, and joyously thick with multitudes of voice and valence. Amen to this exploration —Tyehimba Jess, Winner 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
Poetry. African & African American Studies. LGBTQIA Studies.

Additional Book Information:
- ISBN: 9781737277521
- Imprint: The Song Cave
- Publisher: The Song Cave
- Parent Company: The Song Cave
Books similiar to Punks: New & Selected Poems may be found in the categories below:
- Poetry / American / African American & Black
- Poetry / LGBTQ+
- Social Science / LGBTQ+ Studies / General