“His best work is characterized by thoughtfulness, strong descriptive skills flavored with vivid turns of phrase, and emotional complexities in both the poems themselves and the effects they evoke.” ―Boston Book Review

The Genuine Negro Hero (Wick Chapbook Series 2)

Literature & Fiction

Ellis, Thomas Sayers

Poetry

The Kent State University Press

Take Three Poets
Take Thomas Sayers Ellis: Ellis's fractured syntax, his spasmodic, staccato utterance suggest a defiant sensibility. Indeed, at the center of Ellis's work is the figure of an aggressive father, taunting his son into song. Thomas Sayers Ellis was a founding member of Boston's Dark Room Collective and coeditor of AGNI's successful poetry anthology, On the Verge
Take Larissa Szporluk: This poet stalks a landscape that is humid, stylized, Southern. The poet Gregory Orr says of her work: "Faced with such rending beauty, such ravished lucidity, all we can do is stand back and gaze with gratitude and awe." Larissa Szporluk studied at the Iows Writers' Workshop, has taught at Bowling Green State University, and now resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Take Joe Osterhaus: Unabashedly intellectual and demanding, Osterhaus's verse displays a rare elegance. According to David St. John, "these precise meditations are dazzling for their ability to touch the seemingly ordinary moments of a life and find in them the materials of both miracle and change." Joe Osterhaus has published in such places as the Antioch Review, the Boston Review, and the Nebraska Review, and he currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Edited by Askold Melnyczuk and the poetry panel of AGNI magazine, Take Three is the first in an important annual series designed to launch the work of new poets.

Take Three: Agni New Poets Series: 1 (The Agni New Poets Series , No 1)

Szporluk, Larissa

Osterhaus, Joe

Graywolf Press

With its defiance for any one tradition or voice, Thomas Sayers Ellis's debut becomes a powerful argument against monotony
 A dream. A democracy. A savage liberty. And yet another anthem and yet another heaven and yet another party wants you. Wants you wants you wants you. ―from "Groovallegiance"
In one poem, Thomas Sayers Ellis prognosticates, "Pretty soon, the Age of the Talk Show / Will slip on a peel left in the avant- gutter." The result is The Maverick Room, the testing ground of determination and serendipity, where call-and-response becomes Steinian echo becomes Post-Soul percussive pleasure becomes a bootlegged recording hustled out of a D.C. go-go club.

The Maverick Room: Poems

The ambitious, combative, and spot-on new poetry book by Thomas Sayers Ellis, author of the award-winning The Maverick Room Naturally, this will scare the civil rights out of some and, for a mad-moment, empower a great many wrong-cultured others. ―from "The Return of Colored Only" Skin, Inc. is Thomas Sayers Ellis's big, ambitious argument in sound and image for an America whose identity is in need of repair. In lyric sequences and with his own photographs, Ellis traverses the African American and American literary landscapes―along the way adding race fearlessness to past and present literary styles and themes, and perform-a-forming tributes for the Godfather of Soul, James Brown; the King of Pop, Michael Jackson; and the election of President Barack Obama. Part manifesto, part identity repair kit, part plea for poetic wholeness, this collection worries and self-defends, eulogizes and casts a vote, raises a fist and, often, an intimidating song. One sequence is written as a sonic/ visual diagram of pronouns and vowels; another quotes from editors' rejections of his own poetry included in the book; another poem, "Race Change Operation," begins: "When I awake I will be white, the color of law." Skin, Inc. is the latest work by one of the most audacious and provocative poets now writing.

Skin, Inc.: Identity Repair Poems

The brilliant and provocative second book of poems by Thomas Sayers Ellis, now available in paperback
Skin, Inc. is Thomas Sayers Ellis's ambitious argument in sound and image for an America whose identity is in need of repair. In lyric sequences and with his own photographs, Ellis traverses the African American and American literary landscapes and performs tributes for the Godfather of Soul, James Brown; the King of Pop, Michael Jackson; and the election of President Barack Obama. This book assures Ellis's place as one of the most audacious poets now writing.

This book of photos, poems, and essays chronicles like never before the inner world of GoGo, Washington D.C.'s official music. Thomas Sayers Ellis masterfully captures the rhythms, beats, and souls of a culture which is ever expanding beyond the beltway of our nation's capital. This is a must-have volume.

Crank Shaped Notes

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Arrowsmith Press

Standing on the Verge: Emerging Poets : Emerging Massachusetts Artists

New Cambridge Pr

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

Books by Ellis, Thomas Sayers

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

The Genuine Negro Hero (Wick Chapbook Series 2)

Take Three: Agni New Poets Series: 1 (The Agni New Poets Series , No 1)

The Maverick Room: Poems

Skin, Inc.: Identity Repair Poems

Skin, Inc.: Identity Repair Poems

Crank Shaped Notes

Standing on the Verge: Emerging Poets : Emerging Massachusetts Artists