This is not the first time Hayes has used the sonnet form as metonymic history of racialized violence. With its publication, Hayes joins a distinguished group of poets-among them, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ted Berrigan, John Berryman, Gerald Stern, and Natasha Trethewey-to successfully redress the sonnet for contemporary audiences. And his new collection, American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, is no exception. In all of his work, five poetry collections to date, he ferociously unearths the layers of racist thinking and its harmful effects, often using the poem’s form as his tool. Terrance Hayes is probably the most innovative poet addressing the complexities of race in America today.
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