Build Yourself a Boat

by Camonghne Felix

2019 National Book Award Longlist

"With Build Yourself a Boat, Camonghne Felix heralds a thrillingly new form of storytelling."
-Morgan Parker, author of Magical Negro

This is about what grows through the wreckage. This is an anthem of survival and a look at what might come after. A view of what floats and what, ultimately, sustains.

Build Yourself a Boat redefines the language of collective and individual trauma through lyric and memory.

• ISBN10: 1608466140
• ISBN13: 9781608466146
• Publish Date: 23 April 2019
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Haymarket Books
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 80
• Language: English

Reviews

[laughingrachel]

I liked the experiments with form. The changes that it makes to the flow of the way you read it make a lot of sense. It supports the text, there's a reason for the words to be placed the way they are. I liked how the footnotes came together with everything at the end.

The content of the collection, I'm going to have to sit with some more before I feel comfortable speaking about it. One of the things that makes poetry so difficult to review for me, is the deeply personal nature of it. Not just the poetry itself - it was made to be published, but the feelings and emotions it evokes in the reader. I never feel eloquent enough to get my thoughts across. Which is probably why I like reading other people's words so much.

As it always boils down to for me with poetry, I like it a lot because it made me feel things very deeply.

Highly recommend this collection for anyone. It could speak to a shared experience, it could teach you something new, or a little bit of both.