End of Empire
Penguin Publishing Group · Paperback · July 1, 2025
From a prizewinning poet whose work “points to an unfathomably bright future for the canon” (Danez Smith), a stunningly lush collection about desire, resilience, and our fraught and ecstatic relationship with the natural world A collection as remarkable for the force of its feeling as for the range of its vision, End of Empire explores the tensions of Black and American identity within an ecological framework.
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- Who it’s for
- These poems connect rural Kentucky landscapes, inherited narratives, and the remaking of bodies and surroundings.
- Themes
- Desire and resilience, Black and American identity, Human relationships with nature
- Genres
- African American Poetry, Nature Poetry, American Poetry
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Start with this bookAbout this book
From a prizewinning poet whose work “points to an unfathomably bright future for the canon” (Danez Smith), a stunningly lush collection about desire, resilience, and our fraught and ecstatic relationship with the natural world A collection as remarkable for the force of its feeling as for the range of its vision, End of Empire explores the tensions of Black and American identity within an ecological framework.
Continue reading
Inspired by the language and landscape of the poet’s rural Kentucky hometown and the ways that inherited religious and political narratives shape our relationships with our surroundings and ourselves, these poems reckon with the ways the speaker, their body, and their natural and ideological surroundings continuously remake each other. Formally dynamic, emotionally resonant, and rich with biblical, mythological, and historical allusions, these are elegant, impeccably crafted pieces that evoke the fearsome power of nature and of the tangled, sensual self.
Kentucky Ecologies
These poems connect rural Kentucky landscapes, inherited narratives, and the remaking of bodies and surroundings.
Come here for
- Black and American identity explored through an ecological framework
- Biblical, mythological, and historical allusions
Expect
- Desire and resilience
- Tensions between religious and political narratives and the natural world
Where it sits
| African American Poetry | 91% |
|---|---|
| Nature Poetry | 72% |
| American Poetry | 63% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- African American Poetry
- Nature Poetry
- Women Poets
- Authors
- Marissa Davis
- Publisher
- Penguin Publishing Group
- Published
- July 1, 2025
- Format
- Paperback
- Theme
- Desire and resilience · Black and American identity · Human relationships with nature
- Reading lane
- African American Poetry