{"title":"Derrick Austin","description":"\u003cp\u003eDerrick Austin is the author of three poetry collections including \u003cem\u003eThis Elegance\u003c\/em\u003e (Boa Editions, 2026), \u003cem\u003eTenderness \u003c\/em\u003e(Boa Editions, 2021), winner of the 2020 Isabella Gardner Poetry Award, and \u003cem\u003eTrouble the Water\u003c\/em\u003e (Boa Editions, 2016), selected by Mary Szybist for the A. Poulin Jr, Poetry Prize. \u003cem\u003eBlack Sand\u003c\/em\u003e, his first chapbook, was published by Foundlings Press in 2022. His debut collection was honored as a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry, Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, and the Norma Faber First Book Award. \u003cem\u003eTenderness \u003c\/em\u003ewas a finalist for a Golden Poppy Award, Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, and a Northern California Book Award. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis recent honors include a 2026 AICA-USA Art Critic Fellowship and a 2026 Irene Yamamoto Arts Writers Fellowship. He has had poems and essays commissioned by The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, The New Museum, Craft Contemporary, The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Arts, The Brick (formerly LAXART), The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and The Carnegie Museum. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA Cave Canem fellow, Austin served as the 2016-2017 Ron Wallace Poetry Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute of Creative Writing. He was a 2019-2021 Stegner Fellow at Stanford University as well as a 2022-2023 Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholar. He lives in Chicago.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor more information about Derrick Austin, visit https:\/\/derricklynnaustin.wixsite.com\/authorpage or follow him @Paradiselaust.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"trouble-the-water","title":"Trouble the Water","description":"\u003ch4\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner, \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.boaeditions.org\/pages\/a-poulin-jr-poetry-prize\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eA. POULIN, JR. POETRY PRIZE\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFinalist, 2017 Kate Tufts Discovery Award\u003cbr\u003e2017 Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry\u003cbr\u003e2017 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry\u003cbr\u003e2017 Norma Farber First Book Award                                                                     \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRich in religious and artistic imagery, \u003cem\u003eTrouble the Wate\u003c\/em\u003er is an intriguing exploration of race, sexuality, and identity, particularly where self-hood is in constant flux. These intimate, sensual poems interweave pop culture and history—moving from the Bible through several artistic eras—to interrogate what it means to be, as Austin says, \u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003efully human as a queer, black body\" in 21st century America.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003ePrimer for Sainthood\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSo you want to kiss the passionflowers\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ein his hands, the blooming flies and blood?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSo you would fast and serve his meals,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003emeats and bread, liquors, sweets?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eHappily, you say, drunk on the waters\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eof his smile. And if he does not smile\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ethat day? If out of boredom he says, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ekneel\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eand wash my feet, every day you must\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003edrink of this water.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e Happily, you say. Again\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ewith this happiness. And if he breaks you?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eBatters you with his fists? Batters you\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003elike a dorr and hands back your happiness\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e—a dozen knocked teeth—would you say\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAgain my lord?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e What wouldn’t you pay \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003efor an endless night with the god? O you\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ewho would starve for such music,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ethere is another sweetness saved for those\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ewho wash and bind the wounds, who join the feast.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003cem\u003eTrouble the Water\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eSkilled with the ability to harness detail and stringent images, Derrick Austin creates a lush and smoldering landscape in which the very soul is tested.\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eTrouble the Water\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis a book of devotion, a metaphysical book that troubles God, the landscape of Florida, the always-fallible bodies of men, and even the body of art. Austin writes: ‘Lord in the pigment, the crushed, colored stones. \/ Lord in the carved marble chest. I turn away \/ from art.’ But you will not be able to turn away from this beautiful debut.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—C. Dale Young\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eAustin’s remarkable debut collection opens with a quote from John 5:4–6 . . . foreshadowing how water, religion\/spirituality, and body focus become vehicles to explore being black, homosexual, male, and a human being in a troubling century. ‘San Souci’ epitomizes the sophistication of form and thought in Austin’s poetry by using an effect resembling Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors as the poem’s speaker reflects on paintings, how they reflect life, his body, his lover’s body, how he can see his lover as a painting or see the act of pleasuring another artfully reflected back to him. Whether encountering European catacombs or the Gulf Coast’s post-oil-spill devastation, all of Austin’s lyrical poems are poignant and empowered.” \u003cstrong\u003e—\u003cem\u003eBooklist\u003c\/em\u003e, *Starred*\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This collection is well-suited to readers prepared interrogate what they love and what they distrust. In Austin’s hands, the exquisite can be ominous while the grotesque can turn charming, and his poems wisely assert that the world is unforgiving and yet full of mercy—that one can question beauty and yet still be beholden to it.” \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Publishers Weekly\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eTrouble the Water\u003c\/em\u003e is an auspicious debut, a deep and resonant volume which nurses wonder in the face of sorrow and anger, wonder in the presence of loss. Here we follow a speaker who proclaims early on, “my heart swims\/ in gladness at the changeable world.” I want to keep these words as a credo, recite them often. I want to receive the world this way every day.” \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—The Rumpus\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eDerrick Austin’s stunning debut, \u003cem\u003eTrouble the Water\u003c\/em\u003e, gives readers unique insight on what it means to be a queer, black man in today’s world. He navigates the complicated worlds of race, sexuality, and religion with such fearlessness that we as readers can’t turn away even if we wanted to. . . . Austin is an important voice in poetry. His book comes at a time when it is becoming more and more difficult to ignore the social injustices these communities face. Trouble the Water is not just the title of Austin’s book; it is a command. The only question now is whether or not we will listen.” \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—PANK Magazine\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“‘\u003c\/span\u003eExpect poison of the standing water,\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003e Blake warned, highlighting the dangers of imaginative stagnation. I’m now tempted to believe that Blake himself has sent us Derrick Austin and his remarkable collection, \u003cem\u003eTrouble the Water\u003c\/em\u003e. At once gospel and troubadour song, these deeply spiritual and expansively erotic poems are lucid, unflinching, urgent. This is an extraordinary debut.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Mary Szybist, winner of the National Book Award\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch6\u003ePublication Date: April 12, 2016\u003cbr\u003eISBN: \u003cstrong\u003e978-1-942683-04-9\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/h6\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e© BOA Editions, Ltd. 2016\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":8420423685,"sku":"9781942683049","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/products\/TroubletheWater_FinalFront.jpg?v=1527683771"},{"product_id":"tenderness","title":"Tenderness","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eIn a country where violence and the threat of violence is a constant weather for queer Black people, where can the spirit rest?\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith lush language, the meditative poems in the Isabella Gardner Award-winning \u003ci\u003eTenderness\u003c\/i\u003e examine the fraught nature of intimacy in a nation poisoned by anti-Blackness and homophobia. From the bedroom to the dance floor, from the natural world to The Frick, from Florida to Mexico City, the poems range across interior and exterior landscapes. They look to movies, fine art, childhood memory, history, and mental health with melancholy, anger, and playfulness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEven amidst sorrow and pain, \u003ci\u003eTenderness\u003c\/i\u003e uplifts communal spaces as sites of resistance and healing, wonders at the restorative powers of art and erotic love, and celebrates the capaciousness of friendship.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for \u003cem\u003eTenderness\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“This is a stunning collection for these challenging times when intimacy has escaped us but will, eventually, return. Let this book be your primer.” \u003cb\u003e—NPR's 2021 Poetry Preview\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Derrick Austin is to a blank page what Titian was to a white canvas. In both of their works, audiences will find an exemplary adroitness with portrait, landscape, and myth. \u003ci\u003eTenderness\u003c\/i\u003e, Austin’s second poetry collection, weaves a sinuous lyric that navigates both the physical and metaphysical surroundings of a traveler desirous of understanding, desirous of being understood. The reader senses a certain urgency in the question of how to find tenderness and connection in a world intent on the project of othering. Austin skillfully excavates the rhizomatic truth of belonging and the vulnerable places where God can be found—a touch, a glance, a history, a remembrance.” \u003cb\u003e—Airea D. Matthews\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“It's nice to know that poetry is still a place to go and find some \u003ci\u003eTenderness\u003c\/i\u003e, and Derrick Austin's gentle touch is filled with genuine compassion and those soft wounds of the heart that act as release. ‘A heaven wider than androgyny is sugar on my tongue.’ The world is not shut out but let in, writ in dew and dust, ecstatic invocations and quiet elegies, hurricanes and the calm just after. After all, tenderness is not only sweet. It is also the place where we recognize the threshold of pain. ‘There's a snowbank \/ of roses on the sidewalk \/ where America unmade me.’” \u003cb\u003e—D. A. Powell\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eIs This or Is This True as Happiness\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen we finally make it, we sit on cold stones.\u003cbr\u003eThe river curling over and under our feet\u003cbr\u003eeven colder. His secret place.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe air has that early fall smell, things beginning\u003cbr\u003eto rot, the wet soil nourishing itself.\u003cbr\u003eWe’re trespassing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnything could happen\u003cbr\u003eto me in this white ass town. I’m terrified\u003cbr\u003eif he knows that and terrified if he doesn’t.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy body is puffy, unremarkable.\u003cbr\u003eI’ve grown distant and sullen.\u003cbr\u003eA witch told me gin placates the dead.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhose dead have I been trying to drown\u003cbr\u003edrinking my own elegy?\u003cbr\u003eHe asks if I’m happy, and I say yes. \u003ci\u003eSee how easy it is\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eto get here\u003c\/i\u003e, he says. \u003ci\u003eYes\u003c\/i\u003e,\u003cbr\u003eI say. \u003ci\u003eBut you have to take me back\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39658153115819,"sku":"","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/products\/Tenderness_CVR_Final_SM_RGB-min.jpg?v=1618858545"},{"product_id":"this-elegance","title":"This Elegance","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eInterweaving the sacred and the erotic, \u003cem\u003eThis Elegance\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e \u003c\/em\u003eengages with visual arts through the concept of \u003cem\u003esacra conversazione\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e(“sacred conversation”), a style of Renaissance painting that imagines divine communion across time and space. \u003c\/strong\u003eHere, artists, thinkers, and pop icons commune in a similar sacred dialogue—Kathleen Collins, André Leon Talley, Richmond Barthé, Lyle Ashton Harris, Juan de Pareja, Janelle Monáe, Symone, and others appear as guiding spirits and creative kin.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor a Black, queer person so often dislocated from time and place, pleasure becomes an act of resistance—a grounding in the now. \u003cem\u003eThis Elegance\u003c\/em\u003e is a love song—an offering to Black artistry, a tribute to visionary lives, and a testament to the power of beauty in even our most precarious moments.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for Derrick Austin\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e “Austin’s poems are bounded by conditions of extremity, but unfold, with delicacy and in repose, between those conditions.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Ray McDaniel, \u003cem\u003eThe Constant Critic\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“In Austin’s hands, the exquisite can be ominous while the grotesque can turn charming, and his poems wisely assert that the world is unforgiving and yet full of mercy—that one can question beauty and yet still be beholden to it.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—\u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Austin is a lyrical architect, rendering with urgency and plain-spokenness what is arguably the most challenging kind of loneliness: that experienced amidst others.” \u003cstrong\u003e—Phillip B. Williams,\u003cem\u003e NPR\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eArt Restorer\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat are these figures up to? Who knows.\u003cbr\u003eIt’s hard to read a weathered expression.\u003cbr\u003eIn an apron, I arrange my tools in rows:\u003cbr\u003ecotton swabs to clean faded, celestial hose,\u003cbr\u003ea scalpel for wax on a distant mountain.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat are these figures up to? Who knows\u003cbr\u003eif angels can curse or grieve Golgotha’s woes.\u003cbr\u003eLeading our gaze, accessories to Magdalene\u003cbr\u003eand Christ, they show us what to feel. Suppose\u003cbr\u003ethey look like us, their faces a lost reflection?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat are these figures up to? Who knows.\u003cbr\u003eThe panel cracked from heat. An x-ray shows\u003cbr\u003epatterns in the wood I preserve or recondition.\u003cbr\u003ePicture its candlelit past: a draft blows\u003cbr\u003eagainst chafed pilgrims wrapped in sheepskin.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRecovering the shades and shadows\u003cbr\u003eof different eras and other worlds, I imagine\u003cbr\u003eI do good work here. At last, this corner glows.\u003cbr\u003eCenturies of varnish dissolve. Sickly yellows\u003cbr\u003eleave Mary’s face. Her eyes are wet and sanguine.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47926088106213,"sku":null,"price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":47926088138981,"sku":null,"price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Ebook","offer_id":49920399900901,"sku":null,"price":5.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/files\/ThisElegance_CVR_1600px_RGB_LG.jpg?v=1760729102"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/collections\/Derrick_Austin_Photo_2.jpg?v=1786031376","url":"https:\/\/shop.boaeditions.org\/collections\/derrick-austin.oembed","provider":"Boa Editions","version":"1.0","type":"link"}