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

"Counting Descent is a tightly-woven collection of poems whose pages act like an invitation to New Orleans, to the spades' table, to mom's kitchen, to the kiss on a woman's wrist, to conversations with hydrants and cicadas..."

- Elizabeth Acevedo, Author The Poet X

"So many of these poems just blow me away. Incredibly beautiful and powerful."

- Michelle Alexander, Author of The New Jim Crow

"These poems shimmer with revelatory intensity, approaching us from all sides to immerse us in the America that America so often forgets."

- Gregory Pardlo, Author of Digest, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, 2015

About the Author

Clint Smith is a staff writer at The Atlantic. He 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, and 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. His essays, poems, and scholarly writing have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, the Harvard Educational Review and elsewhere. Clint received his B.A. in English from Davidson College and a Ph.D. in Education from Harvard University.