Field Study

Winner of the 2020 James Laughlin Award, this second collection from the Black American poet Sebree (after Mistress) is part lyrical poem and part prose, a beautifully executed “collection of observational information” that references over 100 works ranging from key authors to pop culture as it affords us a study on intimacy, race, and gender. “Note: This is an investigation of the effects of the world on one woman’s desire and identity formation,” Sebree explains. An elegy to a past relationship with a white man is woven throughout, layered with all the complexities and emotional turmoil one might expect when mourning such a relationship and which Sebree so expertly captures. The dedication reads, “For people seeking whole with the holes they see”; this phrase and the theme itself are repeated again and again, as Sebree offers acute self-reflection that embraces the reader.