There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé
On sale
6th July 2017
Price: £9.99
Genre
One of Oprah Magazine’s Ten Best Books of 2017
A TIME Magazine Best Paperback of 2017
Publishers Weekly‘s Ten Best Poetry Collections of Spring
A Most Anticipated book at Buzzfeed, NYLON and Bustle
One of i-D’s emerging female authors to read in 2017
‘Outstanding collection of poems. So much soul. So much intelligence in how Parker folds in cultural references and the experiences of black womanhood. Every poem will get its hooks into you. And of course, the poems about Beyoncé are the greatest because Beyoncé is our queen.’ Roxane Gay
‘I can and have read Morgan Parker’s poems over and over . . . She writes history and pleasure and kitsch and abstraction, then vanishes like a god in about 13 inches.’ Eileen Myles
‘Morgan Parker has a mind like wildfire and these pages are lit. I can’t recall being this enthralled, entertained, and made alert by a book in a very long time.’ Jami Attenberg
The only thing more beautiful than Beyoncé is God, and God is a black woman sipping rosé and drawing a lavender bath, texting her mom, belly-laughing in the therapist’s office, feeling unloved, being on display, daring to survive. Morgan Parker stands at the intersections of vulnerability and performance, of desire and disgust, of tragedy and excellence. Unrelentingly feminist, tender, ruthless and sequinned, these poems are an altar to the complexities of black American womanhood in an age of non-indictments and déjà vu, and a time of wars over bodies and power. These poems celebrate and mourn. They are a chorus chanting: You’re gonna give us the love we need.
A TIME Magazine Best Paperback of 2017
Publishers Weekly‘s Ten Best Poetry Collections of Spring
A Most Anticipated book at Buzzfeed, NYLON and Bustle
One of i-D’s emerging female authors to read in 2017
‘Outstanding collection of poems. So much soul. So much intelligence in how Parker folds in cultural references and the experiences of black womanhood. Every poem will get its hooks into you. And of course, the poems about Beyoncé are the greatest because Beyoncé is our queen.’ Roxane Gay
‘I can and have read Morgan Parker’s poems over and over . . . She writes history and pleasure and kitsch and abstraction, then vanishes like a god in about 13 inches.’ Eileen Myles
‘Morgan Parker has a mind like wildfire and these pages are lit. I can’t recall being this enthralled, entertained, and made alert by a book in a very long time.’ Jami Attenberg
The only thing more beautiful than Beyoncé is God, and God is a black woman sipping rosé and drawing a lavender bath, texting her mom, belly-laughing in the therapist’s office, feeling unloved, being on display, daring to survive. Morgan Parker stands at the intersections of vulnerability and performance, of desire and disgust, of tragedy and excellence. Unrelentingly feminist, tender, ruthless and sequinned, these poems are an altar to the complexities of black American womanhood in an age of non-indictments and déjà vu, and a time of wars over bodies and power. These poems celebrate and mourn. They are a chorus chanting: You’re gonna give us the love we need.
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Reviews
Parker's poetry is a sledgehammer covered in silk, exposing black women's vulnerability and power and underscoring what it means to be magical and in pain.
An excellent collection of poems
Morgan Parker''s bombastic second book profoundly expresses a black millennial consciousness with anger and appetite.
Parker's poems are the real thing. By turns lyrical and declarative, rich with striking details and unexpected images
[A] brash, risqué collection that explores what it means to be a black woman in contemporary American culture. Parker, whose first book won the Gatewood Prize, is as self-assured as the women who appear in these pages, including Queen Latifah, Nikki Giovanni and Michelle Obama. Cultural references, old songs and classic poems spark observations about feminism, sex and desire at a time when "There's far too many of me dying./ The present is not so different." . . . Each woman in this fierce collection wants to be seen for who she is, not what society wants her to be, and each demands respect.
Some of the most brilliant and daring poetry published in recent years. From police violence to the Obamas to, well, Beyoncé, this collection is not only visceral and beautiful but also full of wit, pop culture and political references.
Full of soul, sass, vim and attitude . . Playful, angry, sexy and as accessible as it is acerbic.
This singular poetry collection is a dynamic meditation on the experience of, and societal narratives surrounding, contemporary black womanhood. . . . Ranging from orderly couplets to an itemized list titled after Jay Z's "99 Problems" to lines interrupted by gaping white space, these exquisite poems defy categorization.