Blood on the Fog
Pocket Poets Series No. 62
Tongo Eisen-Martin
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- This is our lead title of the season.
- In early 2021, Tongo was named the 8th Poet Laureate of San Francisco, which garnered major media coverage and involves high profile public events through 2023. This book will be prominently featured in all settings.
- Along with Amanda Gorman, Tongo is among a group of younger Black poets now receiving widespread media attention.
- His social justice and education advocacy for prisoners, at-risk youth, and other vulnerable populations are central to his writing.
- His reputation and visibility mirror fellow notable poets of color including Hanif Abdurraqib, Danez Smith, Natalie Diaz, Morgan Parker, Aja Monet, and Eve Ewing.
- Tongo is well known around the U.S. and beyond since his first book with City Lights, Heaven Is All Goodbyes, was shortlisted for the 2018 Griffin International Poetry Prize. (Ben Lerner was a judge for that prize and is a strong advocate of Tongo's work.)
- Heaven Is All Goodbyes also won a California Book Award, an American Book Award, a PEN Oakland Award, and the NCIBA Award for Poetry from Northern California Independent booksellers.
- Tongo's profile has grown exponentially. He received praise for Heaven Is All Goodbyes from Claudia Rankine, Joshua Bennett, and Nikki Giovanni.
- Endorsements for Blood on the Fog received from Terrance Hayes, Gerald Horne, Justin Philip Reed, and Kiese Laymon. Sonia Sanchez may provide one, as well.
- This is Tongo's second book with our press and his second in the Pocket Poets Series, placing him in the vaulted and unusual company of poets like Allen Ginsberg who have more than one volume in the series.
- Tongo was profiled by the PBS NewsHour and excerpts from Heaven Is All Goodbyes appeared in the New York Times Magazine and Harper's.
- Eisen-Martin is a riveting spoken-word poet, as well as an activist and a charismatic educator.
- He is in high demand as a performer and speaker, regularly touring, virtually and otherwise, across the U.S.
- Tongo’s recent events included conversations with respected elders Cornel West, Sonia Sanchez, and Gerald Horne, as well as with his contemporary, Hanif Abdurraqib.
Contributor Bio
Tongo Eisen-Martin is the Poet Laureate of San Francisco, California. He is the author of Heaven Is All Goodbyes (City Lights Books, 2017), which was shortlisted for the Griffin International Poetry Prize, received the California Book Award for Poetry, an American Book Award, and a PEN Oakland Book Award. He is also the author of someone's dead already (Bootstrap Press, 2015). Blood on the Fog, his newest collection of poems, is volume 62 in the City Lights Pocket Poets Series.
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