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I Know Your Kind: Poems
Selected for the National Poetry Series by Ada Limon, I Know Your Kind is a haunting, blistering debut collection about the American opioid epidemic and poverty in rural Appalachia.
In West Virginia, fatal overdoses on opioids have spiked to three times the national average. In these poems, William Brewer demonstrates an immersive, devastating empathy for both the lost and the bereaved, the enabled and the enabler, the addict who knocks late at night and the brother who closes the door. He shows us the high, at once numbing and transcendent: "this warm moment when I forget which part of me / I blamed." He shows us the overdose, when "the poppies on my arms / bruised red petals." And he shows us the mourner, attending his high school reunion: "I guess we were underdressed: / me in my surf shoes / you in an urn." Underneath and among this multiplicity of voices runs the Appalachian landscape--a location, like the experience of drug addiction itself, of stark contrasts: beauty and ruin, nature and industry, love and despair.
Uncanny, heartbreaking, and often surreal, I Know Your Kind is an unforgettable elegy for the people and places that have been lost to opioids.
In West Virginia, fatal overdoses on opioids have spiked to three times the national average. In these poems, William Brewer demonstrates an immersive, devastating empathy for both the lost and the bereaved, the enabled and the enabler, the addict who knocks late at night and the brother who closes the door. He shows us the high, at once numbing and transcendent: "this warm moment when I forget which part of me / I blamed." He shows us the overdose, when "the poppies on my arms / bruised red petals." And he shows us the mourner, attending his high school reunion: "I guess we were underdressed: / me in my surf shoes / you in an urn." Underneath and among this multiplicity of voices runs the Appalachian landscape--a location, like the experience of drug addiction itself, of stark contrasts: beauty and ruin, nature and industry, love and despair.
Uncanny, heartbreaking, and often surreal, I Know Your Kind is an unforgettable elegy for the people and places that have been lost to opioids.
88 pages, Paperback
First published September 5, 2017
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537 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
June 23, 2017
This brilliant and devastating collection examines the opioid epidemic of rural America. No, not examines. Breathes, confronts, grieves, defies, succumbs, survives. Brewer doesn't so much transcend the content as explode it. Each poem works as a standalone, but as a whole? A triumph. Sure to be one of my top 2017 collections.
July 5, 2023
7.5.23 - remains just as haunting and glowing as my first read. William Brewer is a master.
Easily one of the most moving poetry collections I have ever read. After each poem, I had to sit back and ponder for some time. The opioid crisis is such a problem, and this collection was able to personalize it in glorious, glowing, tragic verse, and I was incredibly moved by each line. I anxiously await more from this author.
Easily one of the most moving poetry collections I have ever read. After each poem, I had to sit back and ponder for some time. The opioid crisis is such a problem, and this collection was able to personalize it in glorious, glowing, tragic verse, and I was incredibly moved by each line. I anxiously await more from this author.
November 2, 2019
William Brewer's "I Know Your Kind: Poems" is brutal and brilliant-- the specter of the opioid epidemic and rural poverty, specifically crushing Appalachian poverty--mars the American landscape. This regional and working-class poetics. Rich, elliptical, and even restrained despite its brutality, Brewer moves on through the crushing weight of narcotics in the coal gray of the eastern US mountains. The struggle with addiction runs through the poems.
July 13, 2018
There were so many moments while reading this when I realized I was holding my breath. I have relatives in West Virginia, spent some summers there as a child, and always felt that it was a land that time forgot. Reading this book took me back to those places and filled me up with the sorrow of a life that could have been mine if my dad had not left there in the early 1980’s.
September 11, 2017
How can I learn to write poems like these? They bring something to me--they are from everywhere, they could be from Wisconsin, we have plenty of addicts. But they are about West Virginia and remind me of my first winter when I lived in Beckley and traveled through the wilds of Wyoming County occasionally for work. I am there in these poems among beauty and despair, with a brother, pushing against the edges of our lives, why, I don't know, we do this because that's what we do. The book describes addiction in Oceana (Oxyana) from half-way house to relapse to resolution to half-way house to overdose. This is where "...the power plant / is a womb for clouds. // The clouds aren't real / because no matter / how hard I look I see // only clouds in them, not rabbits / or a pirate ship or hands." The images come fast and thick but they are always told from a true voice. The poems are powerfully formed. I need to deconstruct them, learn from them, but the first reading was emotional for me, as it will be for many readers. Pure poetry.
I know Your Kind is a finalist in the National Poetry Series competition. I understand why after reading this book.
I know Your Kind is a finalist in the National Poetry Series competition. I understand why after reading this book.
March 29, 2018
Okay, let me explain myself a bit here. I'm not a reader of poetry. I read this book as part of a challenge I made to myself to read 40 books outside of my "normal". I chose this book by searching for recently published books of poetry. I made the erroneous assumption that something that was published more recently would be easier to understand. It isn't. This book attempts to take a very real look at the opioid crisis in our country, but it comes off as the ramblings of someone who may or may not be on drugs as they are writing their poems. It didn't make any sense to me, and probably reinforced my dislike of poetry in general.
January 3, 2018
In his first full-length collection of poetry, William Brewer explores the opioid epidemic in his home state of West Virginia. In a recent interview, Brewer explains that he didn't want to write about the epidemic, but couldn't get away from it -- I'm glad that he decided to explore this subject, as his book is full of rich, lyrical poems told from many perspectives of this crisis! A great read!
October 22, 2017
Wonderful book. Haunting poems about the opioid crisis in West Virginia. Highly recommended.
January 20, 2025
Closer to 3.5/4! Devastating poems about the opioid epidemic specifically in West Virginia. Gives perspective of the mourner, the enabler, the addict, the one who is trying to make a new promise for a new life.
POTB:
TODAY I TOOK YOU TO OUR OXXANA HIGH SCHOOL
REUNION
It was held in the gymnasium
which was full of coffins full of smaller coffins
fall of Oxys.
I guess we were underdressed: me in my surf shoes
you
in an urn.
During the cocktail hour
faces I'd forgotten asked me
what I do. Ilisten for the wisdom of the clouds, and you? They asked me to recite a piece so I ran through the halls
screaming rapture
is watching a little girl with a flock of gold balloons
tied around her wrist
Aoat away into a hailstorm but they didn't get it. I said we build buildines to house pieces of our past and they laughed clinked their glasses.
Someone with their back turned to the audience gave a speech: two-thirds of us are dead I found the bench under the mulberry where I first wrote words like blue jay hoping they would vibrate into other words into other words into a song that would make me a little less afraid less alone sat down wept with my head in my hands.
Reunion means
go tremble where you first felt helpless. I ran down the rec field holding you like a football hoping to disassemble but remained whole and useless. No memories left just the bleacher we climbed on a spring night and I said if you want to quit then quit doing it.
Lowe you an apology: in February Iclimbed a mountain in Vermont.
I should've brought you with should've thrown you in fistfuls into arctic air.
Things were winding down people stacking chairs dragging the coffins onto a flatbed when a classmate walked up and pointed at you in the urn I cradled like an infant said that motherfucker stole forty bucks from me. I offered him a twenty I said I'm sorry
it's all we have.
POTB:
TODAY I TOOK YOU TO OUR OXXANA HIGH SCHOOL
REUNION
It was held in the gymnasium
which was full of coffins full of smaller coffins
fall of Oxys.
I guess we were underdressed: me in my surf shoes
you
in an urn.
During the cocktail hour
faces I'd forgotten asked me
what I do. Ilisten for the wisdom of the clouds, and you? They asked me to recite a piece so I ran through the halls
screaming rapture
is watching a little girl with a flock of gold balloons
tied around her wrist
Aoat away into a hailstorm but they didn't get it. I said we build buildines to house pieces of our past and they laughed clinked their glasses.
Someone with their back turned to the audience gave a speech: two-thirds of us are dead I found the bench under the mulberry where I first wrote words like blue jay hoping they would vibrate into other words into other words into a song that would make me a little less afraid less alone sat down wept with my head in my hands.
Reunion means
go tremble where you first felt helpless. I ran down the rec field holding you like a football hoping to disassemble but remained whole and useless. No memories left just the bleacher we climbed on a spring night and I said if you want to quit then quit doing it.
Lowe you an apology: in February Iclimbed a mountain in Vermont.
I should've brought you with should've thrown you in fistfuls into arctic air.
Things were winding down people stacking chairs dragging the coffins onto a flatbed when a classmate walked up and pointed at you in the urn I cradled like an infant said that motherfucker stole forty bucks from me. I offered him a twenty I said I'm sorry
it's all we have.
January 20, 2019
Brewer, William. I Know Your Kind. Minneapolis, Milkweek, 2017.
In this collection of poems about the opioid crisis, Brewer weaves together Biblical tales and Greek mythology with the visceral narrative of addiction and all those caught in its web. Brewer crafts something so messy and monstrous into poems so beautifully constructed and seemingly simple they pierce the skin and awaken the consciousness to a problem of one community part of a national epidemic.
In this collection of poems about the opioid crisis, Brewer weaves together Biblical tales and Greek mythology with the visceral narrative of addiction and all those caught in its web. Brewer crafts something so messy and monstrous into poems so beautifully constructed and seemingly simple they pierce the skin and awaken the consciousness to a problem of one community part of a national epidemic.
October 6, 2025
oh i love an author who doesn’t lie to themselves about how transcendent the bliss of addiction was while they were high. someone honest enough to admit their faults came hand in hand with joy. suuuuuch a strong collection. this shit rocked
December 1, 2017
In his poems William Brewer projects a light on the emotional and intense subject of opioid epidemic of rural America.
March 14, 2020
My sister is a heroin addict who has nearly died numerous times, so I was more than ready to be very, very connected to the material. I always look for insight into her particular addiction. My own is alcoholism, and I have a family chockfull of addicts. So, like, you could say this is my territory, and I wanted to poems to hit me. I didn't even pay for the book, it was a gift, so my money didn't even factor into things.
I'm pretty baffled by the superlative reviews.
These poems are mostly nonsense. I've never enjoyed poems that don't attempt to ground the reader anywhere concrete and opt instead for this type of hifalutin rambling [see my other reviews of Dean Young, or James Tate and I've probably written the same thing - as a matter of fact, just after finishing this I picked up Alex Lemon's recent book which I can't even remember the title of and it suffers from the same dreamy, non sequitur disconnection from line to line].
'Resolution' was a great poem in the collection. The poem about taking a hammer and smashing his friend's hand in order to get pills from the ER was a terrific poem. That was actually about something. About the depravity, the insanity of addiction. A coin flip to determine who gets their hand smashed! That's terrific. That is insightful. That is a moment in time that means more than itself. The rest were word salad and had no emotional interest for me.
I don't know. I read a lot of poetry every year and I swear about 60% of it sucks avocado pits in my estimation. 20% is just ok. 15% is good. 4% is great. 1% is excellent and perhaps life changing.
This one is on the cusp of sucks pits, leaning into just ok. I thought about leaving it on my subway seat when I disembarked the train like a discarded newspaper.
I'm pretty baffled by the superlative reviews.
These poems are mostly nonsense. I've never enjoyed poems that don't attempt to ground the reader anywhere concrete and opt instead for this type of hifalutin rambling [see my other reviews of Dean Young, or James Tate and I've probably written the same thing - as a matter of fact, just after finishing this I picked up Alex Lemon's recent book which I can't even remember the title of and it suffers from the same dreamy, non sequitur disconnection from line to line].
'Resolution' was a great poem in the collection. The poem about taking a hammer and smashing his friend's hand in order to get pills from the ER was a terrific poem. That was actually about something. About the depravity, the insanity of addiction. A coin flip to determine who gets their hand smashed! That's terrific. That is insightful. That is a moment in time that means more than itself. The rest were word salad and had no emotional interest for me.
I don't know. I read a lot of poetry every year and I swear about 60% of it sucks avocado pits in my estimation. 20% is just ok. 15% is good. 4% is great. 1% is excellent and perhaps life changing.
This one is on the cusp of sucks pits, leaning into just ok. I thought about leaving it on my subway seat when I disembarked the train like a discarded newspaper.
March 9, 2019
Beautiful and sad. Something connects you so deeply to someone you aren't in this book. Dickinson once said, "If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry...." and by the end of this book I'd felt the pain of addiction, loss, wonder, withdrawal, recovery, and so much more so physically that I knew this was poetry.
May 11, 2018
Set in small town Appalachia, this powerful collection humanizes America’s opioid epidemic.
More information can be found at http://www.rusaupdate.org/awards/notable-books-list/.
More information can be found at http://www.rusaupdate.org/awards/notable-books-list/.
August 2, 2019
A book of poems that approaches a difficult subject (opiate addiction) from a variety of voices/angles. There's a lyricality to this that elevates the brokenness, but does so in a way that feels true, rather than posed or exploitative.
November 16, 2018
Just about every one of these poems is an explosion in the heart, they are that powerful. This beautifully organized collection addresses the drug epidemic, particularly of the drug OxyContin, the one that has been replaced by heroin, in West Virginia. Brewer writes with pain and compassion drawing on the West Virginian landscape and its way of life, in exquisite descriptions, at once bleak and reverent, and speaking as a first degree witness to the individual who suffers addiction, overdose, recovery, relapse, death, and aftermath, including the despair of the family and community. So many of his lines burn. Here are only two of many that speak to me, these from "In the Room of the Overdosed, an Ember":
Once as boys we found a snakeskin hanging the barn rafters and wondered.
Tell me, do pieces of us also get caught on our way to heaven.
February 26, 2019
William Brewer's stunning poetry collection unfolds deep inside the opioid epidemic in West Virigina, his home state. The poems explore the problems of addiction, West Virginia's landscape and history, human loss, and redemption through art. Brewer marries contemporary language and settings with archetypal images of light and allusions to Classical myth to craft these important poems. I did wonder during my reading if he was writing from personal experience with addiction (because the feeling and the understanding were there) or if he was working in persona (because these poems are nothing if not intricately crafted). I sought out an interview that confirms he was working in voices--and successfully at that! Highly recommended for poets, and for those interested in this important social issue.
December 19, 2021
I thought I'd get some insights into the why, and the how of the Oxytocin epidemic. It felt more like broken shards re-piecemealed together over and over again until all lines of direction had been so confused and a coherent narrative lost. But maybe that was the point? I did get the feeling of an endless, hopeless drifting from fog bank to darkness, from thin, threadbare connections to other people into long stretches of isolation and feeling outcast. Interspersed were images of hope and beauty in the natural landscape alongside images of haunting deaths and broken lives. Not a lot for hope to get traction on, however. These are my first impressions after my first reading. I'll update this review after I worked my way back through a second time.
June 13, 2024
I’ve been wanting to read this collection since my junior year of college when I took a poetry class at a neighboring school—-probably my favorite class I took during college. There are countless poignant, unflinching, and moving works of art about substance abuse and what it has done to our country and our families. What makes this one stand out to me, as someone from what I think is a pretty unique city with some unique challenges in New England, is its commitment to the setting of Oceana, West Virginia and honoring the people from there as well as the place. I don’t read poetry as much as I wish I could say I do, and it is quite refreshing and faith-restoring to be reminded of all that language can do. Our work as artists isn’t done.
February 25, 2025
Addiction and Appalachia. I wish Goodreads had a half star ability because I would actually put this at a 3.5/5. It’s a fantastic read, but feels very directly about what it is about. Which is cool and gives a feeling of candidness, but also means that there wasn’t much interpretative depth. I do admit that it could just be me as a recovering addict, but I felt as though there were only moments where it approaches larger concepts or imagery that would have stuck with me or kept me thinking about them. Love the energy and dream-like nature of the prose though. There’s a very Mark Strand essence about it.
December 14, 2017
You can also find this review on Hedgehog Book Reviews!
This is a selection of poetry about the opioid epidemic, focusing on Oceana, West Virginia (sometimes called Oxyana). The poems’ subjects range from detox, halfway houses, withdrawal, to Naloxone. I Know Your Kind is told in the voice of a someone, first hand, struggling with addiction.
I wish I could add more to my brief summary of this collection, as it’s far beyond merely a selection of poems told in the voice of an opioid addict. These poems have so much substance to them; they’re very powerful. They are powerful for two reasons– they can teach readers about the realities of addiction and they can make other addicts feel less alone in their struggles. I was extremely pleased with how touching, emotional, and human the voice in the poems read. I truly think this is an amazing work.
Going back and reading all of the places I marked in this book (there were a lot of sticky tabs!) prove how raw and honest William Brewer’s words are. I’ve never read a work that outlines these particular aspects of addiction: stealing pills from sick individuals and purposely harming oneself or friends to get a prescription for pain medication. These are topics not touched upon in many books about addiction, at least out of the handful that I’ve read. I loved the articulation and authenticity that went into the experiences that William Brewer chose to write about.
I want to tell everyone I know about I Know Your Kind. I think it has the power to educate those who have loved ones that struggle with addiction. I also think this work has the power to unite those struggling with addiction, whether they’re in recovery or not. These two reasons make this collection of poetry one of my favorites that I’ve read not only this year, but in the entire time I’ve run my book review website. I Know Your Kind really hit the mark. I’m so thankful that honest, real poems about the opioid epidemic exist and are accessible for anyone to read and learn from.
I want to give a big ‘thank you’ to Milkweed Editions for agreeing to send me a copy of this work in exchange for an honest review. I wish I had William Brewer’s personal email so I could tell him, myself, how touched I was by his words. I wish I had 20 copies to give out to friends and family to share this collection of bravery and power. I very much look forward to reading more works from Milkweed Editions in the future, as I Know Your Kind was an excellent addition to my blog and my bookshelf of ‘favorites’.
This is a selection of poetry about the opioid epidemic, focusing on Oceana, West Virginia (sometimes called Oxyana). The poems’ subjects range from detox, halfway houses, withdrawal, to Naloxone. I Know Your Kind is told in the voice of a someone, first hand, struggling with addiction.
I wish I could add more to my brief summary of this collection, as it’s far beyond merely a selection of poems told in the voice of an opioid addict. These poems have so much substance to them; they’re very powerful. They are powerful for two reasons– they can teach readers about the realities of addiction and they can make other addicts feel less alone in their struggles. I was extremely pleased with how touching, emotional, and human the voice in the poems read. I truly think this is an amazing work.
I want to highlight some lines that really blew me away.
“Who can stand another night
stealing fistfuls of pills
from our cancer-sick neighbors?”
“We were so hungry; Tom’s hand
on the table looked like it was warm bread.
I crushed it with a hammer”
Going back and reading all of the places I marked in this book (there were a lot of sticky tabs!) prove how raw and honest William Brewer’s words are. I’ve never read a work that outlines these particular aspects of addiction: stealing pills from sick individuals and purposely harming oneself or friends to get a prescription for pain medication. These are topics not touched upon in many books about addiction, at least out of the handful that I’ve read. I loved the articulation and authenticity that went into the experiences that William Brewer chose to write about.
I want to tell everyone I know about I Know Your Kind. I think it has the power to educate those who have loved ones that struggle with addiction. I also think this work has the power to unite those struggling with addiction, whether they’re in recovery or not. These two reasons make this collection of poetry one of my favorites that I’ve read not only this year, but in the entire time I’ve run my book review website. I Know Your Kind really hit the mark. I’m so thankful that honest, real poems about the opioid epidemic exist and are accessible for anyone to read and learn from.
I want to give a big ‘thank you’ to Milkweed Editions for agreeing to send me a copy of this work in exchange for an honest review. I wish I had William Brewer’s personal email so I could tell him, myself, how touched I was by his words. I wish I had 20 copies to give out to friends and family to share this collection of bravery and power. I very much look forward to reading more works from Milkweed Editions in the future, as I Know Your Kind was an excellent addition to my blog and my bookshelf of ‘favorites’.
June 24, 2022
4.75 💫
A collection you did not see coming. I bought this collection on the whim at my rinky dinky book store and was flabbergasted when I was done reading it. Brewer’s work, especially his pieces in “I Know Your Kind”, has had a huuuuge stylistic inflluence on my own work. An ability to create images using such cryptic and abstract speech is a superpower that is exhausting to manage. The reward in the end is so sweet.
This collection is the micro-specs of particles that become visible in the sunlight; you see, forget, than see again.
A collection you did not see coming. I bought this collection on the whim at my rinky dinky book store and was flabbergasted when I was done reading it. Brewer’s work, especially his pieces in “I Know Your Kind”, has had a huuuuge stylistic inflluence on my own work. An ability to create images using such cryptic and abstract speech is a superpower that is exhausting to manage. The reward in the end is so sweet.
This collection is the micro-specs of particles that become visible in the sunlight; you see, forget, than see again.
November 9, 2017
I Know Your Kind is an artifact of grief for the time we are living in, in which opiate addiction has lead to widespread heroin use and the place the author calls home, West Virginia, has been particularly affected. This work is an important addition to a sad canon of work on this topic, but one that should be read to more fully understand. Read Sam Quinones' Dreamland to understand how this happened; read William Brewer's I Know Your Kind to feel its impact.
July 12, 2019
Life in Oxyana
This book of poetry is both a moving portrayal of addiction, and one of the most beautifully metaphorical depictions of life and death I have ever read. Every metaphor feels fresh and novel. The pastoral imagery becomes a reflection of the emotional difficulties as well as a reflection of the town, Appalachia, and how economy can affect an entire people. Can not recommend enough, especially to anyone who loves reading transcendent imagery.
This book of poetry is both a moving portrayal of addiction, and one of the most beautifully metaphorical depictions of life and death I have ever read. Every metaphor feels fresh and novel. The pastoral imagery becomes a reflection of the emotional difficulties as well as a reflection of the town, Appalachia, and how economy can affect an entire people. Can not recommend enough, especially to anyone who loves reading transcendent imagery.
February 28, 2025
I love this poetry collection so much. I picked it up by chance at a used bookstore and I'm so glad I did. I don't really have the words to explain it, but his use of language and poetic style really fuckin hits. This collection dissects themes of poverty and addiction, and it's definitely brutal and depressing, but it was almost cathartic and comforting(? Not the right word, but we'll roll with it) in its honesty & how it confronts its subject matter. IDK man, I just love it.
September 8, 2017
I Know Your Kind conveys the pervasive shadow the opioid epidemic casts across Oceania, WV—and, by extension, towns like Oceania—in a way that statistics, figures, and journalism cannot..."
I hope you'll dig my full review on the Ploughshares blog: http://blog.pshares.org/index.php/rev...
I hope you'll dig my full review on the Ploughshares blog: http://blog.pshares.org/index.php/rev...
April 12, 2018
.Reading poetry aloud would not only help with my depression, but also strengthen the bond (through speech) with my bird, I thought. Perhaps poems about addiction, and the melancholic yearning for oblivion that comes with it, wasn't a great choice.
I love this collection, although it didn't help with the depression.
Incredible volume.
I love this collection, although it didn't help with the depression.
Incredible volume.
January 3, 2022
"How can this not be for you? I would have done anything."
The final poem is one of the only poems that has made me actually tear up. Brought my mom's copy of it to college with me because I love it so much. The emotion in every single poem is so powerful and the language is just beautiful.
The final poem is one of the only poems that has made me actually tear up. Brought my mom's copy of it to college with me because I love it so much. The emotion in every single poem is so powerful and the language is just beautiful.
August 29, 2018
These poems are haunting and beautifully wrought. Each line is more skillfully rendered and devastating to read than the next. Brewer's talent with image and metaphor makes every single poem a pleasure to read, even when the subject matter is so sad and disturbing. Love, love, loved this book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews