The Lost Etheridge: Uncollected Poems of Etheridge Knight

This volume, with a foreword by Yusef Komunyakaa, collects over 200 poems from out-of-print books, literary journals, and those left in typescript and notebook form hidden away in university archives. The Lost Etheridge attempts to serve as a companion to The Essential Etheridge, an indispensable, albeit slim, volume of poetry published 35 years ago by University of Pittsburgh Press.

“Reading these new poems is like discovering footage of Michael Jordan jumping from half court instead of the free throw line. I didn’t know more shades of the blues could be found in one of our country’s finest, truest blues poets. Etheridge Knight’s irreverence, insight, and passion is a little bit rawer, and therefore, much bluer in these odes, elegies, letters, convict lust fantasies, freedom chants, and love songs. These poems add new blue notes to the work of an essential blues poet.” — Terrance Hayes

“This collection is to be savored - an offering for the people of Knight’s signature humor, plain-spoken truths, and musicality.” —Lydia Johnson, The Indianapolis Review