Maybe the Saddest Thing: Poems (National Poetry)
&#8220;Dense with echo and vibrant with syncopation, Wicker&#8217;s debut deploys a festive panoply of characters from African-American culture and music to make serious claims about memory, sadness, race, self-consciousness, and desire.&#8221; (Publishers Weekly)&#8220;Action painting meets the pop of hip-hop. Here is a dashing figure of speech and preach, a lovepoet to the stars....Marcus Wicker[&#8217;s] lyric wizardry astounds the ear in conclamant melodies and astonishes the eye &#8216;like a shard of glass catches a beam&#8217;.&#8221; (D.A. Powell)&#8220;Marcus Wicker has, as Mos Def and Talib Kweli did, made an art that bridges cultures&#8230;.The dialogues, love letters, and reflections throughout this wonderful debut show us what it is to be in vigilant conversation with the world and with the self.&#8221; (Terrance Hayes)&#8220;Wicker preaches an urgent gospel of pop-culture, desire, adolescence, race, and family, that says &#8220;Hell yes&#8221; to the world with deft turns of phrase, and a rhythmic inventiveness that hurtles down the page. This fearless debut will make your head spin, your heart strut.&#8221; (Erika Meitner)