We (the People of the United States)

by Joshua Bennett

From an award-winning poet praised for his “rhapsodic, rigorous” work (The New Yorker) comes an immersive meditation on kindship, collectivity, and environmental thought

We is a formally and thematically ambitious collection inspired by Virgil’s Georgics that examines community, the weight of history, and what we owe one another from a Black American perspective. It evolves from the personal—Bennett’s family history in New York and current life in Massachusetts—to the historical, linking the past and present through place. The collection concludes with an epic poem that traces African American life in the twentieth century through four iconic George Washington Carver, George Jackson, George Taliaferro, and George Clinton. The result is a sweeping collection that affirms poetry as a technology of memory.

Genres: Poetry

112 pages, Paperback

Expected publication March 17, 2026

About the author

Joshua Bennett received his Ph.D. in English from Princeton University. He also holds an M.A. in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Warwick, where he was a Marshall Scholar. In 2010, he delivered the Commencement Address at the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated with the distinctions of Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude.

Winner of the 2015 National Poetry Series, Dr. Bennett has received fellowships from the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop, Cave Canem, the Josephine de Karman Fellowship Trust, and the Ford Foundation. His writing has been published or is forthcoming in Boston Review, Callaloo, The Kenyon Review, Poetry and elsewhere. He has recited his original work at venues such as the Sundance Film Festival, the NAACP Image Awards, and President Obama’s Evening of Poetry and Music at The White House. He is currently a member of the Society of Fellows at Harvard University.

Reviews

[b · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every time I try to argue to myself that I'm not a poetry person, I only incidentally enjoy poetry, a book like this comes along and tries to prove me wrong. This book is a tribute, and a well-executed one at that, serving both as gorgeous poetry in it's own right and a connection both to Bennett's personal life and to history.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.