FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR POETRY

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

WINNER OF THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING POETRY

“Patricia Smith is the greatest living poet. Every book is better than the last.” —The Guardian

“In The Intentions of Thunder, language itself becomes weather—charged, clarifying, and resounding, a form of resurrection and survival.” —National Book Award Judges' Citation

A collection of the finest new and selected poems from one of the most groundbreaking voices in contemporary poetry, a “masterful performer and poet of voices too little heard” (Poetry Foundation).

A celebration and testament to the tenacity of life on the margins, brilliantly illuminating Black and queer experience.
 

From a Pulitzer Prize finalist and central figure in American poetry, a landmark collection of new and selected poems chronicling five decades of work marked by moral courage, radical empathy, and unflinching witness.