Blood Dazzler

A storm’s-eye view of the devastation that forever changed New Orleans and America.

In minute-by-minute detail, Patricia Smith tracks Hurricane Katrina’s transformation into a full-blown mistress of destruction. From August 23, 2005, the day Tropical Depression 12 developed, through August 28 when it became a Category 5 storm with its “scarlet glare fixed on the trembling crescent,” to the heartbreaking aftermath, these poems evoke the horror that unfolded in New Orleans as America watched on television.

Assuming the voices of flailing politicians, the dying, their survivors, and the voice of the hurricane itself, Smith follows the woefully inadequate relief effort and stands witness to the immeasurable losses. An unforgettable reminder that poetry can still be “news that stays news,” Blood Dazzler serves not only as a memorial, but as a necessary step toward national healing.

Publication date: September 1, 2008

Format: Trade Paper

Dimensions: 6 x 9

Page count: 90 pages

ISBN: 9781566892186

Thanks to a 2013 ADA Access Improvement Grant administered by VSA Minnesota for the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, this title is also formatted for screen readers which make text accessible to the blind and visually impaired. To purchase this title for use with a screen reader please email us at info@coffeehousepress.org.

Patricia Smith is the author of six volumes of poetry, including Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah, winner of the 2013 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets and the Phillis Wheatley Award from the Quarterly Black Review; Blood Dazzler, a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award and Teahouse of the Almighty, a National Poetry Series selection. Her work has appeared in Best American Poetry, Best American Essays, and Best American Mystery Stories. Professor for the City University of New York and a Cave Canem faculty member, she lives in New Jersey with her husband, Edgar Award–winning novelist Bruce DeSilva, and her dogs Brady and Rondo.

Finalist for the 2008 National Book Award in Poetry

“From a confluence of poetic sensibilities, in a hot political wind, Smith rises above mere topicality to address timeless concerns.” 

—National Book Award judges’ citation

“Hurricane Katrina has receded from the national news, but the destruction it wrought has found testimony in literature. Patricia Smith’s fierce, blood-in-the-mouth collection of poems . . . grows out of this disaster and already has the whiff and feel of folklore.” 

—John Freeman, NPR

“Blood Dazzler is the narrative of a shameful tragedy, but it is lyrical and beautiful, like a hymn we want to sing over and over until it lives in our collective memory.” 

—The Charleston Post and Courier

“Patricia Smith brings an incantatory brilliance to the horror of that hurricane and our nation’s shameful response to it. . . . A work of awful beauty.” 

—The Star Tribune

“An astonishing poetic narrative. . . . Smith defiantly, bravely, imagines the unimaginable.” 

—The Brooklyn Rail

“The definitive collection of poetry to chronicle Hurricane Katrina.” 

—New Delta Review

“Powerful, visceral . . . a resonant and devastating portrait of a vivacious city’s destruction.” 

—Open Letters

“A necessary read for all Americans.”

—Bustle

“To read these poems and not be affected is impossible. You will be seared by the grit and spirit of these people, the landscape, and the true force of nature.” 

—Feminist Review

“A lyrical, political, sensory and utterly amazing feat that only an artist of [Patricia Smith’s] caliber, heart and imagination could pull off.”

—The Root

“This accomplished work reaffirms [Smith's] position as one of America’s strongest and most clarion poetic voices.” 

—Booklist