Don’t Call Us Dead

Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith is a devastating and luminous collection that confronts Black death, queer desire, and the search for a world beyond violence with breathtaking lyrical urgency.

About the Book

Danez Smith’s second full-length collection opens with a sequence that imagines an afterlife specifically for Black boys killed by police—a heaven built from summer and sweetness, a place where the body is finally safe. It is a provocation and an elegy simultaneously, a refusal to accept that the deaths Smith catalogs are simply the cost of being Black in America. From this incendiary beginning, the collection moves through grief, HIV-positive diagnosis, queer longing, and the ongoing emergency of racial violence, building a world in which love and loss are inseparable.

Smith’s formal range is extraordinary. The book moves between lyric essays, list poems, sonnets, and dense blocks of prose poetry, each form chosen to match the emotional register of the moment. The sequence “summer, somewhere” that opens the collection is perhaps the most discussed, but equally powerful are the poems addressing Smith’s HIV diagnosis—poems that hold fear and desire in the same breath without resolving either. Throughout, Smith writes about Black queerness with specificity and tenderness rarely seen in American poetry.

The collection is also deeply invested in the politics of address: who speaks, who is spoken to, and who gets to mourn. Smith refuses the white gaze and writes with and for Black queer communities, which gives the book an intimacy and urgency that is impossible to replicate. The title itself is a statement of refusal—a rejection of elegiac passivity in favor of ongoing, present-tense aliveness.

What Makes It a Meridian Award Winner

Don’t Call Us Dead was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the Forward Prize for Best Collection—recognitions that speak to its standing in contemporary poetry. But its significance goes beyond prizes. Smith has produced a collection that speaks directly to one of the defining crises of American life—the killing of Black people by the state—while simultaneously celebrating the fullness and complexity of Black queer existence. The Meridian Award honors a collection that is both aesthetically daring and urgently necessary, a book that belongs in the conversation about what American poetry can do.

Who Should Read This

Anyone who reads contemporary American poetry should read Don’t Call Us Dead. It is essential for readers interested in social justice, Black literature, and queer writing, but its appeal is not limited to those audiences—this is simply extraordinary poetry, full stop. Readers who admire the work of Claudia Rankine, Terrance Hayes, or Ocean Vuong will find a kindred spirit in Smith’s voice. It is recommended for adult readers; some content addresses sexual health, violence, and death with unflinching directness.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Don’t Call Us Dead worth reading?

Yes, without reservation. Don’t Call Us Dead is one of the most important poetry collections of the decade. Danez Smith writes with a ferocity and tenderness that is deeply rare, and the collection offers both the pleasures of extraordinary lyric craft and the weight of genuine emotional reckoning. It will change how you think about elegy, about Blackness, and about what poetry can hold.

What genre is Don’t Call Us Dead?

Don’t Call Us Dead is a poetry collection, specifically a collection of contemporary American lyric poetry. It incorporates elements of elegy, ode, lyric essay, and social documentary poetry, united by Smith’s singular voice and vision. It is firmly in the tradition of politically engaged American poetry while also being deeply personal and formally inventive.