Map to the Stars [Paperback]

A resonant new collection of poetry from Adrian Matejka, author of The Big Smoke, a finalist for The Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award 

Map to the Stars, the fourth poetry collection from National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist Adrian Matejka, navigates the tensions between race, geography, and poverty in America during the Reagan Era. In the time of space shuttles and the Strategic Defense Initiative, outer space is the only place equality seems possible, even as the stars serve to both guide and obscure the earthly complexities of masculinity and migration. In Matejka's poems, hope is the link between the convoluted realities of being poor and the inspiring possibilities of transcendence and escape—whether it comes from Star Trek, the dream of being one of the first black astronauts, or Sun Ra's cosmic jazz.“Matejka offers a fresh set of figures for describing the youth of Black Americans now entering middle age. . .There is truly an astounding wealth of material here, cultural artifacts that add up to an ironclad allegory for the plight of urban African Americans in the ‘80s, which serves to point the way to where we are now.”
–The Los Angeles Times

“Map to the Starsunpacks human systems like race, poverty and parenting. But it also examines larger ones – like the system of gravity and momentum.  ‘The things,’ Matejka says, ‘that make the universe spin.’”
– PBS Newshour
 
“Covers an ever-expanding emotional landscape . . . and continues Matjejka’s investigation of race in the private and public spheres.”
–St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“In this seismic and sonic new Matejka collection Richard Pryor is an Indiana sun god and a Black boy waits impatiently for the solar system to alight inside his mailbox. Rich and ekphral+