Spit Back a Boy
"Beyond the bracing intelligence in these poems, beyond the surges of joy and trouble, beyond the poet’s awe in this split second, he plunges with imagination into the timeless work of loving witness, resonant with high style and the blues. Wherever Iain Pollock turns, the search is on, in history, art, family, in things on display and hidden in himself. What he finds he finds the art to celebrate with tenderness and wisdom."—Brooks Haxton, author ofThey Lift Their Wings to Cry"If the ear is tuned to catch it, there is music in our blood. Train the eyes for nuance, you can trace the history of our skins. InSpit Back a Boy, his impressive first book, you can read the dance Iain Haley Pollock has had with time, location, family and their various repercussions. A lesser poet would freeze in complaint. If the spirit is generous, and the balance between living and letters match, a fine book of poems sings the author and the reader free."—Cornelius Eady, Miller Family Chair in Writing and Literature, University of Missouri-Columbia“Iain Haley Pollock’s debut volumeSpit Back A Boy. . . .is a shapeshifter that keeps saying, in so many different ways, how varied, how complex the African-American poetic idiom is, how complex the American poetic idiom is.”—Jake Adam York,On the Seawall