Poetry. African American Studies. "Just when contemporary poetry seems headed for a repetitive rut of slickly confessional, self-indulgent drivel, Curtis Crisler's fierce and unapologetic stanzas shatter a window to let the air in. This is biting, innovative work that refuses to allow the reader to turn away. If you need any proof that poetry still has a future, look here. Here is the sign we've been waiting for"--Patricia Smith.

Pulling Scabs

Literature & Fiction

Crisler, Curtis

Poetry

Willow Books/Aquarius Press

Young Adult Fiction. African American Studies. For Charles Malik Jacobs, the summer of junior year will change everything. He dreams about being a writer someday, but for now, he's just dreaming. Exceptionally bright, he wins a gifted artist scholarship to Cal State. While there, however, he can't help but think about what he is leaving behind in Chicago—family, friends and more importantly, his former self. He relies on photographs to help him see what he believes he has lost. What Malik doesn't know is that he will gain much more this summer, including the love of someone named Bleu. I am smart. Extremely smart, so says my parents, friends and teachers. But it doesn't register. I don't see it, at least not like they see it.... I'm a bit lazy—a daydreamer. My father, a big fan of mine, persecutes me about my laziness, how I will daydream my life away.

Dreamist

Children's Books

Aquarius Press

Curtis L. Crisler sings a midwestern blues filled with Mama's cake batter and ashy legs, boomboxes and T-ball. Walking through these pages, I swear I could hear the music of the streetlights turning on, telling me to get home before dark. Curtis' poems live in the dark - and they capture the scent of laughter and tears like lightning bugs in a mason jar. Open these pages and drink in the light.\n--Tyehimba Jess, Pulitzer Prize winner, and author of Olio

THe GRey aLBuM [PoeMS]

Steel Toe Books

The darkness--and the goodness--in the lives of the young men of Gary, the armpit-city of Chicago, cries out in this poetry. The Chocolate City. Hell. The Land of Robbing Hoods. Gary, Indiana, has a number of names. It stands as a mother guarding her roach-like inhabitants, their crime, their greed. Has God left this town? Has He left the crumbling church where parishioners pocket donations for hamburgers and candy? Or does He turn the other cheek to pious morality, happy instead to see laughing and card playing and love from His flock on Saturday night? The solitary voice of the city's young men pose these questions in this bittersweet, poetic collection. Both angry poverty and innocent childhood are explored in this YALSA/ALA Best Book for Young Adults by Curtis Crisler with unclothed sincerity.

Tough Boy Sonatas

Teen & Young Adult

WordSong

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Crisler, Curtis. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Crisler, Curtis

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Crisler, Curtis. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Pulling Scabs

Dreamist

THe GRey aLBuM [PoeMS]

Tough Boy Sonatas