Alondra Nelson

Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize   * A New York Times Notable Book of 2011 and New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * * A New Yorker, Library Journal and Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year *   New poetry by the award-winning poet Tracy K. Smith, whose “lyric brilliance and political impulses never falter” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) You lie there kicking like a baby, waiting for God himself To lift you past the rungs of your crib. What Would your life say if it could talk?                                                             —from “No Fly Zone” With allusions to David Bowie and interplanetary travel, Life on Mars imagines a soundtrack for the universe to accompany the discoveries, failures, and oddities of human existence. In these brilliant new poems, Tracy K. Smith envisions a sci-fi future sucked clean of any real dangers, contemplates the dark matter that keeps people both close and distant, and revisits the kitschy concepts like “love” and “illness” now relegated to the Museum of Obsolescence. These poems reveal the realities of life lived here, on the ground, where a daughter is imprisoned in the basement by her own father, where celebrities and pop stars walk among us, and where the poet herself loses her father, one of the engineers who worked on the Hubble Space Telescope. With this remarkable third collection, Smith establishes herself among the best poets of her generation.

This book explores the evolution of cancer from being perceived as a white woman's disease to a threat in communities of color. Keith Wailoo draws on patients' accounts, films, fiction, medical evidence, and epidemiological data to reveal how cancer awareness, prevention, treatment, and survival have all been impacted by race. From the mass black migration to urban areas to the civil rights movement and contemporary health activism, the author documents the central role that race and gender have played in the history of cancer awareness. This pioneering study sheds light on the ongoing battle against cancer, particularly along the color line.

Discover an inspiring and poignant story of MacNolia Cox, the first African American finalist in the National Spelling Bee Competition in 1936. The book portrays her dream of becoming a doctor and the pivotal moment that changed her life forever. A nonlinear narrative adds depth to the engaging plot, underscoring how a single event can shape a person's future.

This compelling book exposes the disturbing medical experimentation that took place within the walls of Philadelphia's Holmesburg Prison from the mid-1950s through the mid-1970s. Inmates were used as guinea pigs for a host of medical experiments, from testing facial creams to potentially lethal substances. Based on in-depth interviews and rigorous research, Acres of Skin paints a disturbing portrait of abuse, moral indifference, and greed by doctors, prison officials, and corporations.