Counting Descent - by Clint Smith

About the Book

Counting Descent is a meditation on lineage, history, and race that explores the cognitive dissonance of coming of age as black child in 21st century America.

Book Synopsis

Within the pages of Counting Descent a captivating coming-of-age narrative unfolds - that challenges, complicates, and ultimately enriches our understanding of lineage, tradition, and the multifaceted nature of identity.

In the intricate tapestry of Counting Descent, Clint Smith expertly navigates the nuances of belonging and dissonance. Through his poetic lens, he guides us through the labyrinthine experience of being part of a community that fiercely and unapologetically celebrates the richness of black humanity. Yet, this celebration exists in juxtaposition with the world outside, a world that often distorts blackness into a distorted and unwarranted caricature of fear.

Smith's poems move fluidly across personal and political histories, all the while reflecting on the social construction of our lived experiences. Smith brings the reader on a powerful journey forcing us to reflect on all that we learn growing up, and all that we seek to unlearn moving forward.

Review Quotes

"So many of these poems just blow me away. Incredibly beautiful and powerful."
--Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow

"In Counting Descent, Clint Smith reflects "even the universe is telling us/ that we can never get too far// from the place that created us." Smith weaves histories, from collective to personal, to make indelible archetypes of those places that have created us all. These poems shimmer with revelatory intensity, approaching us from all sides to immerse us in the America that America so often forgets. The broad sweep of Smith's vision delivers a sudden awareness: In this poet's hands, we sense, like Rilke, there is no place that does not see you."
--Gregory Pardlo, author of Digest

Awards:

• Winner, 2017 Black Caucus of the American Library Association Literary Award
• Finalist, 2017 NAACP Image Awards
• One Book One New Orleans 2017 Book Selection

About the Author

Clint Smith is the author of the narrative nonfiction book, "How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America," which was a #1 New York Times bestseller, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the Hillman Prize for Book Journalism, the Stowe Prize and selected by the New York Times as one of the 10 best books of 2021. He is also the author of the poetry collection "Counting Descent," which won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. He is a staff writer at The Atlantic.