Part friendship diary, part bright elegy, part war cry, Homie is written for friends: for Danez’s friends, for yours. Rooted in the loss of one of Smiths close friends, this book comes out. It’s a collection of love poems that isn’t for lovers so much as for friends, for found and created family, which has always been vital for queer folks. But then the phone lights up, or a shout comes up to the window, and family – blood and chosen – arrives with just the right food and some redemption. Homie is Danez Smiths magnificent anthem about the saving grace of friendship. Homie, which has another title that’s explained in the note at the beginning of the book (and in this great Twitter thread), is about friendship, survival, death, intimacy, and community. In poems of rare power and generosity, Smith acknowledges that in a country overrun by violence, xenophobia and disparity, and in a body defined by race, queerness, and diagnosis, it can be hard to survive, even harder to remember reasons for living. ‘In its cutting compassion, Homie is as much a celebration of loved ones’ lives as it is a lament for their loss, equally a war cry for kinship and the burial dirge after the battle’ Amanda GormanĪ mighty anthem about the saving grace of friendship, Danez Smith’s highly anticipated collection Homie is rooted in their search for joy and intimacy in a time where both are scarce. In poems of rare power and generosity, Smith acknowledges that in a country overrun by. Rooted in the loss of one of Smith’s close friends, this book comes out of the search for joy and intimacy within a nation where both can seem scarce and getting scarcer.

‘A deeply personal collection… and provocative and moving meditation on friendship, sex and blackness,’ Guardian Diverse Books for a Neighborhood of Readers. Book Descriptions: Homie is Danez Smith’s magnificent anthem about the saving grace of friendship.

Homie poetry book