Penguin Press is delighted to offer reading groups the opportunity to read and review two powerful poetry collections: Poor by Caleb Femi and Citizen by Claudia Rankine.
About the books
In Poor, Caleb Femi combines poetry and original photography to explore the trials, tribulations, dreams and joys of young Black boys in twenty-first century Peckham. He contemplates the ways in which they are informed by the built environment of concrete walls and gentrifying neighbourhoods that form their stage, writes a coded, near-mythical history of the personalities and sagas of his South London youth, and pays tribute to the rappers and artists who spoke to their lives. Above all, this is a tribute to the world that shaped a poet, and to the people forging difficult lives and finding magic within it.
In her moving, critical and fiercely intelligent collection of prose poems, Claudia Rankine examines the experience of race and racism in Western society through sharp vignettes of everyday discrimination and prejudice, and longer meditations on the violence – whether linguistic or physical – which has impacted the lives of Serena Williams, Zinedine Zidane, Mark Duggan and others. Citizen weaves essays, images and poetry together to form a powerful testament to the individual and collective effects of racism in an ostensibly ‘post-race’ society.
How to get involved
Penguin Press would like to give reading groups access to both collections via NetGalley links in return for online reviews. You will need to create a free NetGalley account to access the titles, which will be sent to you via email, and you will be expected to share your reviews online by 5 March.
To take part in this offer, please get in touch via the email below by 4 February 2021.
