SPIT BACK A BOY
Winner of the 2010 Cave
Canem Poetry Prize
Selected by Elizabeth
Alexander
“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 of
They 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. In Spit 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
"We all hear a personal music, and it’s up to us to create the
moves to go with it. Pollock listens well, and his dance is all
strut and stomp, wild and wooly, and filled with the stories
he’s seen, heard, and lived. Focusing on themes of racial
identity, romance, the everyday things in life, and ever-looming
mortality, these poems are built on jazz, troubles, pain,
gunfire in the night, blues. . ."
—Louis McKee, Library
Journal
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