Summer Reading List: Citizen: An American Lyric

The UC Berkeley Summer Reading List is an annual compilation of recommended (though not required) readings suggested by Cal faculty, staff, and students as a welcome to incoming freshmen and transfer students.

This week we take a closer look at

“Citizen: An American Lyric” Claudia Rankine, Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2014

“In my opinion, Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric was the most important book of poetry published last year, and probably in the past several years; it is at once an accessible and complex and challenging engagement with contemporary racism.”

— EVAN KLAVON, PhD Candidate, Department of English

This post was contributed by

Michael Larkin Lecturer, College Writing Programs

Tim Dilworth First Year Coordinator, Library

Jonathan Garrett Site designer, Doe & Moffitt Libraries