The Bones Beneath

THE BONES BENEATH captures what it means to be American, Southern, diasporan, what it means to belong and not to belong, and finding many ways home. It transports readers across place and time, focusing on race and racism, health and healing, Africa and America, and mysticism and incantations. The poems call us to remember the histories we are coaxed to forget and opens pathways to understand our shared humanity. You will not leave this work without being changed and without understanding how and why there is hope for us to be better.

"Sheila Smith McKoy's THE BONES BENEATH is a stunning collection that whispers, wails, and yells. In her inescapable incantatory voice, readers are transported to real worlds--from North Carolina to Ghana--and to the imaginary worlds of ever after. This book is a remembrance of departures and returns by a poet who is 'the one who would come home.' Smith McKoy summons ancestors and ultimately finds what was lost. These poems are the most brilliant portals. They are 'the sun splitting through the blinds.'"--Jenny Sadre-Orafai

"Sheila Smith McKoy writes of ancestry, family, and mother's love, as well as love for the motherland. THE BONES BENEATH speaks a free language for the collective's dream of freedom. Here is a compass and guidepost to orient ourselves on the daily walk to a more liberated existence. This collection is an offering ... the balm of something akin to wisdom. A gift not simply for us, but for our children's children."--Freddy Gutierrez

Poetry. African & African American Studies. Women's Studies.