Poet Clint Smith reading from his debut book "Counting Descent" 10-15-16 at 7pm

Reading with poet Clint Smith at Revolution Books in Berkeley on Saturday October 15 at 7pm.

Clint will be reading from his debut collection, Counting Descent.

"So many of these poems just blow me away. Incredibly beautiful and powerful."
-- Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow

Clint Smith is included in the new collection by Jesmyn Ward, The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race. He is a 2014 National Poetry Slam champion, a Cave Canem Fellow, and his writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The New Yorker, American Poetry Review, The Guardian, and Boston Review. He teaches at Harvard and he grew up in New Orleans.

"In Counting Descent, Clint Smith soars and patiently walks between Harvard Square and New Orleans, between the gap in his father's teeth and Baldwin's conversation with the Protest Novel, between the movement of Drake's hands and joy of sliding down a slide with his mother. Nothing, not one word, verse or line feels forced. This is only important because though most of the book feels written in what artist call "the pocket," nothing here feels at all safe... Counting Descent is more than brilliant. More than lyrical. More than bluesy. More than courageous. It is terrifying in its ability to at once not hide and show readers why it wants to hide so badly...."
-- Kiese Laymon, author of Long Division