Morgan Parker

"This is a marvelous book. See for yourself. Morgan Parker is a fearlessly forward and forward-thinking literary star." Terrance Hayes"

There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyonce

Lindsay

Crying in the Gap by my therapist’s office

or I am still angry with my parents for traumatizing me

I think I’m going crazy sometimes really

you think I’m joking I’m never joking

What’s it like to be the first anything

And be sentenced to smile at men I wish were dead

-"Beyoncé Is Sorry for What She Won’t Feel"

- "ALL THEY WANT IS MY MONEY MY PUSSY MY BLOOD"

- "The President Has Never Said the Word Black"

- "Freaky Friday Starring Beyoncé and Lady Gaga"

Favorites:
- "ALL THEY WANT IS MY MONEY MY PUSSY MY BLOOD"
- "The President Has Never Said the Word Black"
- "RoboBeyoncé"
- "Freaky Friday Starring Beyoncé and Lady Gaga"
- "The President’s Wife"
- "Welcome to the Jungle"
- "Heaven Be a Xanax"

Maggie Gordon

As a white person from Canada who isn't into much pop/music culture at all, most of this book went right over my head. However, I could see the power in the poems, the way their structure influenced the meaning, and there were many fantastic turns of phrases. This is a book I will probably return to as I think a second reading would help my comprehension, but I can see why it's gotten so many rave reviews. It's a powerful book about race and one for me to ponder.

Lizelle G

Morgan Thomas

Marco SJ

Sarah Marchant

Alianor Chapman

Kevin Bertolero

Adrianna Ismar-Gaud Sawyers

Mallory Foutch

Athena Eloy

Maggie

dani (they/them)

Patty M.

Emily Perkovich

libby g

A TIME Magazine Best Paperback of 2017 A Publishers Weekly Best Poetry Collection of Spring A Paris Review Staff Pick A Most Anticipated Book of 2017 at NPR.org, BuzzFeed, VICE, NYLON, and more "This is a marvelous book. See for yourself. Morgan Parker is a fearlessly forward and forward-thinking literary star." —Terrance Hayes The only thing more beautiful than Beyoncé is God, and God is a black woman sipping rosé and drawing a lavender bath, texting her mom, belly-laughing in the therapist’s office, feeling unloved, being on display, daring to survive. Morgan Parker stands at the intersections of vulnerability and performance, of desire and disgust, of tragedy and excellence. Unrelentingly feminist, tender, ruthless, and sequined, these poems are an altar to the complexities of black American womanhood in an age of non-indictments and deja vu, and a time of wars over bodies and power. These poems celebrate and mourn. They are a chorus chanting: You’re gonna give us the love we need.

Elizabeth Hisserich

Rachel Rozdzial

Witch

One of Oprah Magazine's Ten Best Books of 2017 A TIME Magazine Best Paperback of 2017 Publishers Weekly's Ten Best Poetry Collections of Spring A Most Anticipated book at Buzzfeed, NYLON and Bustle One of i-D's emerging female authors to read in 2017 'Outstanding collection of poems. So much soul. So much intelligence in how Parker folds in cultural references and the experiences of black womanhood. Every poem will get its hooks into you. And of course, the poems about Beyoncé are the greatest because Beyoncé is our queen.' Roxane Gay 'I can and have read Morgan Parker's poems over and over . . . She writes history and pleasure and kitsch and abstraction, then vanishes like a god in about 13 inches.' Eileen Myles 'Morgan Parker has a mind like wildfire and these pages are lit. I can't recall being this enthralled, entertained, and made alert by a book in a very long time.' Jami Attenberg The only thing more beautiful than Beyoncé is God, and God is a black woman sipping rosé and drawing a lavender bath, texting her mom, belly-laughing in the therapist's office, feeling unloved, being on display, daring to survive. Morgan Parker stands at the intersections of vulnerability and performance, of desire and disgust, of tragedy and excellence. Unrelentingly feminist, tender, ruthless and sequinned, these poems are an altar to the complexities of black American womanhood in an age of non-indictments and déjà vu, and a time of wars over bodies and power. These poems celebrate and mourn. They are a chorus chanting: You're gonna give us the love we need.

There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyonce

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