A black hood from a hoodie with a white background.

Citizen: An American Lyric

by Claudia Rankine Author

Prose, images, and poetry combine in this powerful, slim volume to paint a picture of race in the US right now. From microaggressions to outright exclusion to violence, the core of it is about belonging—what are our assumptions and expectations of citizenship? Rankine has won numerous awards, including the MacArthur genius fellowship, and her words will stop you in your tracks. This is poetry as it's meant to be, holding you still long enough to thoroughly rearrange how you evaluate the everyday world around you.