The New Clean - by Jon Sands (Paperback)

About the Book

Jon Sands has traveled into a ridiculous world, where nothing is too hilarious to not be honest, and nothing is too honest to not get you pregnant. Best of all, hes packed us in his suitcase. He represents an ever-changing population of those raised elsewhere who find themselves beckoned by the history, mystique, and magic-makers of New York City. These poems inhabit their own contradictions, and exquisitely navigate the many complicated sides of what it means to be alive.

Book Synopsis

Jon Sands is a high-stakes, honest poet of wild range. Sands possesses the remarkable ability to celebrate just as deeply as he mourns & whichever city he moves through in his poems ... one can be certain that there will be some singing. That's just what these poems do. - Aracelis Girmay, author Sands scours buses in Queens, faceless bullets, and a city full of "back talk" to find a place where we can all "fall madly in Jon," and we do. Always fresh, The New Clean is a poetics of triumph - Michael Cirelli, Executive Director of Urban Word-NYC Jon Sands has traveled into a ridiculous world, where nothing is too hilarious to not be honest, and nothing is too honest to not get you pregnant. Best of all, he's packed us in his suitcase. This book welcomes those beckoned by the history, mystique, and magic-makers of New York City. These poems exquisitely navigate the many complicated sides of what it means to be alive.

Review Quotes

Sands scours buses in Queens, faceless bullets, and a city full of "back talk" to find a place where we can all "fall madly in Jon," and we do. Always fresh, The New Clean is a poetics of triumph - Michael Cirelli, Executive Director of Urban Word-NYC

Jon Sands is a high-stakes, honest poet of wild range. Sands possesses the remarkable ability to celebrate just as deeply as he mourns & whichever city he moves through in his poems ... one can be certain that there will be some singing. That's just what these poems do. - Aracelis Girmay, author

About the Author

Jon Sands won the 2018 National Poetry Series, selected for his second book, It's Not Magic (Beacon Press, 2019). He is the Emotional Historians workshop facilitator, a series of generative writing workshops that you can learn more about on Instagram at @iAmJonSands. His work has been featured in the New York Times and anthologized in The Best American Poetry. He teaches at Brooklyn College, Urban Word NYC, and for over a decade has facilitated a weekly writing workshop for adults at Baily House, an HIV/AIDS service center in East Harlem. He tours extensively as a poet but lives in Brooklyn.