Crave Radiance
We crave radiance in this austere world,
light in the spiritual darkness.
Learning is the one perfect religion,
its path correct, narrow, certain, straight.
—from “Allegiance”
Elizabeth Alexander has become one of America’s most exciting and important poets, and her selection as the inaugural poet by President Obama confirmed her place as one of the indispensable voices of our time. Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems 1990–2010 gathers twenty pages of new poetry, along with generous selections from her previous work. The result is the definitive volume to date by this American master.
Hurston/Wright Legacy Award
Winner
New York Journal of Books
“Elizabeth Alexander is an erudite and knowledgeable guide who draws on dark days and light, both personal and historical, to clearly demonstrate some of what it is, and has been, as a black woman in America.”
Booklist
“Alexander brings intellectual power, musicality, sensuousness, and vernacular immediacy to her lyrics. . . . Storyteller, teacher, and poet, Alexander looks deeply within and speaks out with grace and power.”
The Midwest Book Review
“Crave Radiance more than deserves its place in any poetry or literature collection.”