Overview

“His themes are easily sentimental. . . . There’s a tension in the work that I just find incredibly fresh.” —Gregory Pardlo, judge of the 2018 Honickman First Book Award Winner of the prestigious Honickman First Book Award from the American Poetry Review, selected by Pulitzer Prize winner Gregory Pardlo, Throwing the Crown describes a boyhood on the edge. Set in a Chicago neighborhood dominated by gang life, Saenz sets the sweetness and vulnerability of youth against the cold reality of a gun pressed against a forehead. Full of accelerative sound—tight rhymes and short, percussive lines—these poems follow a fast-paced trajectory from danger to survival, pausing to acknowledge the beauty and humor in the details along the way. From “Blue Line Incident”: . . . the boys of 15th and 51st, I say, they’re my boys, my friends. I was fishing for a life- saver & he took, hooked him in & had him say goodbye like we was boys & shit when really I should’ve gutted that fuck w/the tip of my blue ballpoint. Jacob Saenz was born in Chicago and raised in Cicero, Illinois. His poetry has been anthologized in The Open Door: 100 Poems, 100 Years of Poetry Magazine and The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop. A CantoMundo fellow, he has been the recipient of a Letras Latinas Residency and a Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship. He serves as an associate editor for RHINO.

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Reviews

More than a thought experiment, Jacob Saenz's debut collection Throwing the Crown quietly defies the old narratives that portray young men in cities like Chicago as anonymous statistics and cautionary tales. - Gregory Pardlo, from the introduction Saenz's skillful and rich lyricism is abundant with internal rhyme, staccato anapests and dactyls, and athletic extended metaphors. - Gregory Pardlo, from the introduction Jacob Saenz has penned an American lyric, and has reinvigorated language for our time. - Gregory Pardlo, from the introduction

More than a thought experiment, Jacob Saenz's debut collection Throwing the Crown quietly defies the old narratives that portray young men in cities like Chicago as anonymous statistics and cautionary tales. - Gregory Pardlo, from the introduction Saenz's skillful and rich lyricism is abundant with internal rhyme, staccato anapests and dactyls, and athletic extended metaphors. - Gregory Pardlo, from the introduction Jacob Saenz has penned an American lyric, and has reinvigorated language for our time. - Gregory Pardlo, from the introduction

Author Information

Jacob Saenz was born in Chicago and raised in Cicero, IL. His poems have appeared in Pinwheel, Poetry, Tammy, TriQuarterly and other journals. His poetry has also been anthologized in The Open Door: 100 Poems, 100 Year of Poetry Magazine and The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop. A CantoMundo fellow, he’s been the recipient of a Letras Latinas Residency and a Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship. He serves as an associate editor for RHINO.

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