Dangerous Goods: A series of poems about two African American men who immigrated with their families from Milledgeville, GA to Liberia in the 1870s

Position
Poet
Affiliation
Bemidji, MN
2010

Dangerous Goods tracks its speaker throughout North America and abroad, illuminating the ways in which home and place may inhabit one another comfortably or uncomfortably—or both simultaneously. From the Bahamas, London, and Liberia, to Bemidji, Minnesota, and Milledgeville, Georgia, Sean Hill interweaves the contemporary with the historical, and explores with urgency the relationship between travel, migration, alienation, and home. Here, playful "postcard" poems addressed to Nostalgia and My Third Crush Today sit alongside powerful reflections on the immigration of African Americans to Liberia during and after the era of slavery. Such range and formal innovation make Hill's second collection both rare and exhilarating. Part shadowbox, part migration map, part travelogue-in-verse, Dangerous Goods is poignant, elegant, and deeply moving.

Books Based on Fellowship Research

Sean Hill
Milkweed Editions, 2014