Greater Ghost

by Christian J. Collier

In Christian Collier’s debut poetry collection, Greater Ghost, this extraordinary Black Southern poet precisely stitches the sutures of grief and gratitude together over our wounds. These pages move between elegies for private hauntings and public ones, the visceral bereavement of a miscarriage alongside the murder of a family member, and the specter of police brutality. With a profound awareness of literary tradition, Collier enters into the American canon and dialogues with Black Southern noir—a poem like “Beloved,” whose title expresses not only a genuine tenderness in its term of endearment but invokes Morrison, contextualizes this book within the legacy of racial injustice in the U.S., presenting again the prolific losses and disproportionate Black mortality across time, and yet remembers the resilience of love and transformative possibility of self-actualization from inside tragedy. 

 

Genres: Poetry

87 pages, Paperback

Published September 15, 2024

About the author

Christian J. Collier is a Black, Southern writer, arts organizer, and teaching artist who resides in Chattanooga, TN. He is the author of the chapbook The Gleaming of the Blade from Bull City Press. His works have appeared or are forthcoming in North American Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, The Michigan Quarterly Review, Atlanta Review, and elsewhere. A 2015 Loft Spoken Word Immersion Fellow, he is also the winner of the 2020 ProForma Contest and the 2019-2020 Seven Hills Review Poetry Contest.

Reviews

[Heather Dent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heart-wrenching and beautiful poetry that grapples with with loss and death.

Here's an excerpt from my favorite poem "Leaving the Earth"

I'm not prepared for the doors to shut & lock.
I've so loved this sun-groomed globe,
each minute bit I've been served,
I fear letting go

[Erica Tuggle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poems that are heavy with loss but evoke strong imaginings and connection. The work is powerful and resonant.

[pianogal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was kinda creepy. Sounds like the author has been through some hard times.