{"title":"Books by Shane McCrae","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781472158031","title":"The Many Hundreds of the Scent","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eTELEGRAPH\u003c\/i\u003e BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'One of the most erudite and inventive poets of our time'\u003ci\u003e Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShane McCrae, one of the most powerful voices in contemporary poetry, returns with \u003ci\u003eThe Many Hundreds of the Scent\u003c\/i\u003e, an urgent new collection that brims with lyric force. He expands both the poetic and the personal mythologies that he has been constructing over the course of his career; in addition to introducing his readers to 'the thin king \/ who eats the world,' McCrae invites them to bear witness to his tangle of childhood memories. In brutal, sorrowful lines, he recounts being kidnapped by his white supremacist maternal grandparents from his Black father as a boy. 'O reader, listener, stay,' McCrae writes. 'You are now evidence.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Many Hundreds of the Scent\u003c\/i\u003e, Homeric figures mingle with those that populate the poet's world. Helen weighs Paris's spear in her hand and bloodies a raging Achilles; Penelope burns her loom each night; Dido watches Aeneas's ship burn on the horizon. A strikingly original and engaging poet, McCrae continually surprises - the collection includes a series of poems about the advent of post-rock and \u003ci\u003eHex\u003c\/i\u003e, the debut album of the band Bark Psychosis. With this collection, he has once more crafted an extraordinarily affecting book of poetry. As Kate Kellaway writes in the \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e, 'In McCrae's hands, poetry is reclamation. It is also transport: writing a way out and through.'\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43254321610930,"sku":"9781472158031","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781472158031.jpg?v=1786020521"},{"product_id":"9781838854225","title":"Pulling the Chariot of the Sun","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eVULTURE\u003c\/i\u003e'S BEST MEMOIR OF THE YEAR \u003cbr\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNEW STATESMAN \u003c\/i\u003eBEST BOOK OF THE YEAR \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShane McCrae was born to a white mother and a Black father. At eighteen months old, he was kidnapped from his parents' house. His maternal grandparents transported him to suburban Texas, wishing to hide his Blackness from him. In the years that followed, they manipulated and controlled him, believing they were doing what was best for Shane. While in their house, Blackness would always be the worst thing about him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePulling the Chariot of the Sun\u003c\/i\u003e is a revelatory account of what it means to be Black in America, written with virtuosity and heart by one of the finest poets writing today. It illuminates how we all might be made whole again, through a tireless search for the truth and the joyful pursuit of what we love.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44582971080882,"sku":"9781838854225","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781838854225_80834bbe-a049-4eea-8798-12752ab3a0c4.jpg?v=1786028308"},{"product_id":"9781472160140","title":"New and Collected Hell","description":"Award winning poet of our times Shane McCrae, 'peer to the peerless' (New York Journal of Books), takes up and turns on its head the mantle of Dante in this contemporary vision of Hell.   Of death the muse is death the muse of HellIs death the muse of Heaven I don't knowO muse of where howcan I hope to goTo where I pray I'll go sing at least tellShane McCrae, one of the most prophetic and powerful poetic voices of our time, has created a twenty-first-century epic in New and Collected Hell. As David Woo wrote in Poetry, 'McCrae's poems allude to literary precursors like Dante, Milton, and the Bible, but the voice is unabashedly of our time . . . By seeking to heal the rift in his own identity, McCrae has listened intently to the literary echoes emanating from the English language and transmuted them through his own dynamic voice.' Here, he gathers new and previous work as a culmination of his long-standing poetic project: a new and unforgettable journey through Hell. McCrae's work is indelible, and this collection brings his searing vision to new depths.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54926503182709,"sku":"9781472160140","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781472160140_ab2843c0-f679-4048-bb34-7f70aa96edcf.jpg?v=1786020585"},{"product_id":"9781632431721","title":"Two Appearances After the Resurrection","description":"McCrae’s latest collection considers the nature of perception and experiments with form and punctuation.      This is a book about perceiving and being perceived. The various subjects of these poems are viewed by an artist, a devil, a soul floating out of a body it had inhabited, a god fed up with her husband’s infidelities, and a father whose young child has COVID-19. The poems of Two Appearances After the Resurrection are haunted by the question of what one ought to do with their perceivability.    After a decade of publishing poems almost exclusively utilizing no punctuation aside from the slash, Shane McCrae began including semi-regular punctuation in his 2023 book, The Many Hundreds of the Scent. He continues that project in Two Appearances After the Resurrection. Here, he further explores the consequences—especially the rhythmical consequences—of the change. Throughout these poems, McCrae perceives and implicitly considers his own shifting approaches to writing.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56369053761909,"sku":"9781632431721","price":14.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781632431721_22605bd9-55ee-40e4-8bed-a9c1181b8c56.jpg?v=1786023160"},{"product_id":"9780892554645","title":"The Animal Too Big to Kill – Poems","description":"\u003cp\u003e \u003cstrong\u003e PRE-ORDER NOW - Published: 08\/05\/2026 \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003eBinding: Paperback \/ softback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56419621405045,"sku":"9780892554645","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780892554645_7b9fec64-4415-4837-bf8a-4aa694233473.jpg?v=1786033245"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-shane-mccrae.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}