9 must-read race books like Wade in the Water: Poems by Tracy K. Smith

Cover of Wade in the Water: Poems by Tracy K. Smith

Wade in the Water: Poems

By: Tracy K. Smith

4.10

Format: 95 pages, Kindle Edition

The extraordinary new poetry collection by Tracy K. Smith, the Poet Laureate of the United States …

"History is a ship forever setting sail."

-Tracy K. Smith, Wade in the Water: Poems

"History is a ship forever setting sail."

-Tracy K. Smith, Wade in the Water: Poems

"In the '70s, everything shone as bright as brass."

-Tracy K. Smith, Wade in the Water: Poems

"In the '70s, everything shone as bright as brass."

-Tracy K. Smith, Wade in the Water: Poems

If you liked the race plot in Wade in the Water: Poems by Tracy K. Smith , here is a list of 9 books like this:

Cover of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities by Jericho Brown, None, Chen Chen

1. When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

By: Jericho Brown , None , Chen Chen

4.26

Format: 96 pages, Paperback

In this ferocious and tender debut, Chen Chen investigates inherited forms of love and family—the s… read more

Similar categories in Jericho Brown's When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities book and Tracy K. Smith's Wade in the Water: Poems

  • poetry
  • race
  • nonfiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
"What is it, to remember nothing, of what one loved?"

-Jericho Brown, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

"But sometimes no one said anything & I saw him, the local paper boy on his route. His beanstalk frame & fragile bicycle. & I knew: we would be so terribly happy."

-Jericho Brown, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

"My mother was in the hospital & everyone wanted to be my friend. But I was busy making a list: good dog, bad citizen, short skeleton, tall mocha. Typical Tuesday. My mother was in the hospital & no o…"

-Jericho Brown, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

Cover of Look by Solmaz Sharif

2. Look

By: Solmaz Sharif

4.16

Format: 84 pages,

*Finalist for the 2017 PEN Open Book Award* *Finalist for the 2016 National Book Award* Solmaz Shar… read more

Similar categories in Solmaz Sharif's Look book and Tracy K. Smith's Wade in the Water: Poems

  • poetry
  • nonfiction
Cover of Don't Call Us Dead: Poems by Danez Smith

3. Don't Call Us Dead: Poems

By: Danez Smith

3.97

Format: 0 pages, Paperback

The highly anticipated second collection by Danez Smith--"Hallelujah is an understatement" (Patrici… read more

Similar categories in Danez Smith's Don't Call Us Dead: Poems book and Tracy K. Smith's Wade in the Water: Poems

  • poetry
  • race
  • nonfiction
  • contemporary
  • adult

4. There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé

By: Morgan Parker

4.04

Format: 323 pages, Paperback

There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyonceuses political and pop-cultural references as a framewo… read more

Similar categories in Morgan Parker's There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé book and Tracy K. Smith's Wade in the Water: Poems

5. Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings: Poems

By: Joy Harjo

3.76

Format: None pages, Paperback

In these poems, the joys and struggles of the everyday are played against the grinding politics of … read more

Similar categories in Joy Harjo's Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings: Poems book and Tracy K. Smith's Wade in the Water: Poems

6. Lucky Wreck

By: Ada Limon

3.26

Format: None pages, Paperback

The winner of the 2005 Autumn House Press Poetry Prize, selected by Jean Valentine. Ada Limon's fir… read more

Similar categories in Ada Limon's Lucky Wreck book and Tracy K. Smith's Wade in the Water: Poems

Cover of Felon: Poems by Reginald Dwayne Betts

7. Felon: Poems

By: Reginald Dwayne Betts

4.34

Format: 95 pages, Hardcover

Felon tells the story of the effects of incarceration in fierce, dazzling poems—canvassing a wide r… read more

Similar categories in Reginald Dwayne Betts's Felon: Poems book and Tracy K. Smith's Wade in the Water: Poems

  • poetry
  • race
  • nonfiction
  • contemporary
  • african american
  • audiobook
"A perfect day that's just like doom. Own so fucking world."

-Reginald Dwayne Betts, Felon: Poems

"& Nicky says it's a wonder how something that can have you hold another so gently could be the ruin of all you might touch."

-Reginald Dwayne Betts, Felon: Poems

Cover of An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo

8. An American Sunrise

By: Joy Harjo

4.28

Format: 116 pages, Hardcover

National Bestseller A stunning new volume from the first Native American Poet Laureate of the Un… read more

Similar categories in Joy Harjo's An American Sunrise book and Tracy K. Smith's Wade in the Water: Poems

  • poetry
  • race
  • history
  • nonfiction
  • adult
  • audiobook
"Gather strength, pull it in Be right where you are."

-Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

"The songs of the guardians of silence are the most powerful—"

-Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

"History will always find you, and wrap you In its thousand arms."

-Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

" We will keep going despite dark Or a madman in a white house dream. "

-Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise

Cover of frank: sonnets by Diane Seuss

9. frank: sonnets

By: Diane Seuss

4.50

Format: 137 pages, Paperback

WINNER OF THE 2022 PULITZER PRIZE IN POETRY WINNER OF THE 2021 NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD … read more

Similar categories in Diane Seuss's frank: sonnets book and Tracy K. Smith's Wade in the Water: Poems

  • poetry
  • female authors
  • nonfiction
  • contemporary
  • 21st century
  • adult
"I saw a little movie of a person stroking a small bird with two Q-tips, one held between the forefinger and thumb of each hand. It tipped back its head to receive the minor tenderness, which to the b…"

-Diane Seuss, frank: sonnets

Cover of The Tradition by Jericho Brown

10. The Tradition

By: Jericho Brown

4.24

Format: 77 pages, Paperback

Jericho Brown’s daring new book The Tradition details the normalization of evil and its history at … read more

Similar categories in Jericho Brown's The Tradition book and Tracy K. Smith's Wade in the Water: Poems

  • poetry
  • race
  • african american
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
"The opposite of rape is understanding."

-Jericho Brown, The Tradition

"Nobody in this nation feels safe, and I'm still a reason why."

-Jericho Brown, The Tradition

"There is the happiness you have And the happiness you deserve."

-Jericho Brown, The Tradition

"We few left who listen to the radio leave Ourselves available to surprise."

-Jericho Brown, The Tradition

Cover of The Hurting Kind: Poems by Ada Limon

11. The Hurting Kind: Poems

By: Ada Limon

4.34

Format: 120 pages, Hardcover

An astonishing collection about interconnectedness—between the human and nonhuman, ancestors and ou… read more

Similar categories in Ada Limon's The Hurting Kind: Poems book and Tracy K. Smith's Wade in the Water: Poems

  • poetry
  • nonfiction
  • 21st century
  • adult
  • audiobook
"There is a solitude in this world I cannot pierce. I would die for it."

-Ada Limon, The Hurting Kind: Poems

"Before, the only thing I was interested in was love, how it grips you, how it terrifies you, how it annihilates and resuscitates you. I didn’t know then that it wasn’t even love that I was interested…"

-Ada Limon, The Hurting Kind: Poems

Cover of Homie by Danez Smith

12. Homie

By: Danez Smith

4.42

Format: 96 pages, Paperback

Homie is Danez Smith’s magnificent anthem about the saving grace of friendship. Rooted in the loss … read more

Similar categories in Danez Smith's Homie book and Tracy K. Smith's Wade in the Water: Poems

  • poetry
  • race
  • nonfiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
"the b in debt is a silent black trapped"

-Danez Smith, Homie

"what good is hiding the gun & locking the cabinet if the boy can still find his own hands? if anything that loops can be a rope?"

-Danez Smith, Homie

Cover of The Carrying by Ada Limon

13. The Carrying

By: Ada Limon

4.40

Format: 120 pages, Hardcover

From National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Ada Limón comes The Carryi… read more

Similar categories in Ada Limon's The Carrying book and Tracy K. Smith's Wade in the Water: Poems

  • poetry
  • nonfiction
  • contemporary
  • 21st century
  • adult
  • audiobook
"What if, instead of carrying a child, I am supposed to carry grief?"

-Ada Limon, The Carrying

"All I’ve been working on is napping, and maybe being kinder to others, to myself."

-Ada Limon, The Carrying

"I know you don’t always understand, but let me point to the first wet drops landing on the stones, the noise like fingers drumming the skin. I can’t help it. I will never get over making everything s…"

-Ada Limon, The Carrying

"I saw a mom take her raincoat off and give it to her young daughter when a storm took over the afternoon. My god, I thought, my whole life I’ve been under her raincoat thinking it was somehow a marve…"

-Ada Limon, The Carrying

Cover of So Far So Good: Final Poems: 2014-2018 by Ursula K. Le Guin

14. So Far So Good: Final Poems: 2014-2018

By: Ursula K. Le Guin

4.17

Format: 100 pages, Hardcover

"It's hard to think of another living author who has written so well for so long in so many styles … read more

Similar categories in Ursula K. Le Guin's So Far So Good: Final Poems: 2014-2018 book and Tracy K. Smith's Wade in the Water: Poems

  • 21st century
  • poetry
  • adult
  • nonfiction
Cover of Goldenrod: Poems by Maggie  Smith

15. Goldenrod: Poems

By: Maggie Smith

3.94

Format: 128 pages, Hardcover

From the award-winning poet and bestselling author of Keep Moving and Good Bones, a stunning poetry… read more

Similar categories in Maggie Smith's Goldenrod: Poems book and Tracy K. Smith's Wade in the Water: Poems

  • poetry
  • nonfiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
"I am offering the only thing I have. I am holding out my hand, feeding myself to the hungry future."

-Maggie Smith, Goldenrod: Poems

Cover of Customs: Poems by Solmaz Sharif

16. Customs: Poems

By: Solmaz Sharif

4.21

Format: 86 pages, Paperback

In Customs , Solmaz Sharif examines what it means to exist in the nowhere of the arrivals terminal,… read more

Similar categories in Solmaz Sharif's Customs: Poems book and Tracy K. Smith's Wade in the Water: Poems

  • poetry
  • nonfiction
  • contemporary
  • adult
  • audiobook
Cover of Judas Goat: Poems by Gabrielle Bates

17. Judas Goat: Poems

By: Gabrielle Bates

4.21

Format: 104 pages, Paperback

Gabrielle Bates’s electric debut collection Judas Goat plumbs the depths of intimate relationships.… read more

Similar categories in Gabrielle Bates's Judas Goat: Poems book and Tracy K. Smith's Wade in the Water: Poems

  • poetry
Cover of American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes

18. American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin

By: Terrance Hayes

4.27

Format: 91 pages, Paperback

In seventy poems bearing the same title, Terrance Hayes explores the meanings of American, of assas… read more

Similar categories in Terrance Hayes's American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin book and Tracy K. Smith's Wade in the Water: Poems

  • poetry
  • race
  • nonfiction
  • 21st century
  • african american
  • audiobook
"May all the gold you touch burn, rot, and rust."

-Terrance Hayes, American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin

" Sometimes Is a good answer to any existential question."

-Terrance Hayes, American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin

"Are you not the color of this country's current threat Advisory?"

-Terrance Hayes, American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin

"Why youth seems to be my only requisite for beauty now is beyond me."

-Terrance Hayes, American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin

Cover of Pig: Poems by Sam Sax

19. Pig: Poems

By: Sam Sax

4.32

Format: 112 pages, Paperback

From the brilliantly talented National Poetry Series and James Laughlin Award winner comes a third … read more

Similar categories in Sam Sax's Pig: Poems book and Tracy K. Smith's Wade in the Water: Poems

  • poetry
  • audiobook
Cover of A Fortune for Your Disaster by Hanif Abdurraqib

20. A Fortune for Your Disaster

By: Hanif Abdurraqib

4.47

Format: None pages, None

In his much-anticipated follow-up to The Crown Ain't Worth Much, poet, essayist, biographer, and mu… read more

Similar categories in Hanif Abdurraqib's A Fortune for Your Disaster book and Tracy K. Smith's Wade in the Water: Poems

  • poetry
  • race
  • adult
  • nonfiction
  • 21st century
  • african american
  • audiobook
Cover of Wade in the Water: Poems by Tracy K. Smith

21. Wade in the Water: Poems

By: Tracy K. Smith

4.10

Format: 95 pages, Kindle Edition

The extraordinary new poetry collection by Tracy K. Smith, the Poet Laureate of the United States … read more

Similar categories in Tracy K. Smith's Wade in the Water: Poems book and Tracy K. Smith's Wade in the Water: Poems

  • poetry
  • race
  • history
  • female authors
  • adult
  • nonfiction
  • contemporary
  • 21st century
  • african american
  • audiobook
"History is a ship forever setting sail."

-Tracy K. Smith, Wade in the Water: Poems

"In the '70s, everything shone as bright as brass."

-Tracy K. Smith, Wade in the Water: Poems

"Is it strange to say love is a language Few practice, but all, or near all speak?"

-Tracy K. Smith, Wade in the Water: Poems

"Is this some enigmatic type of test? What if we Fail? How and to whom do we address our appeal?"

-Tracy K. Smith, Wade in the Water: Poems

10 best-selling contemporary books like Wade in the Water: Poems by Tracy K. Smith

Transform Your Habits

When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

Jericho Brown , None , Chen Chen

4.26

Transform Your Habits

Don't Call Us Dead: Poems

Danez Smith

3.97

Transform Your Habits

Felon: Poems

Reginald Dwayne Betts

4.34

Transform Your Habits

frank: sonnets

Diane Seuss

4.50

View all the books

9 must-read contemporary books like frank: sonnets by Diane Seuss

Transform Your Habits

The Wild Iris

Louise Glück

4.18

Transform Your Habits

Sharks in the Rivers

Ada Limon

3.95

Transform Your Habits

frank: sonnets

Diane Seuss

4.50

Transform Your Habits

The Tradition

Jericho Brown

4.24

View all the books

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