Descriptions, Reviews, etc.
Description:
A California Review of Books Best Poetry Book of 2025
Finalist for the 2026 Norma Farber First Book Prize
What God in the Kingdom of Bastards is a poetic exploration of grief, memory, Blackness, and the haunting legacy of familial trauma by way of colonialism, told through the lens of two brothers: Lot, the elder, who is flesh and alive, and Frank, the younger, a ghost navigating his post-suicide existence. Their relationship anchors the collection, weaving themes of love, loss, and the arduous reconciliation between the living and the dead. Combining vivid imagery with fragmented, conversational tones of prayers, laments, and whispered confessions that are surreal and lyrical, Gyamfi delves into the ways trauma--both personal and systemic--permeates family, faith, and identity.
Review Quotes: 'I was made in Kumasi, Ghana, ' writes the poet. And indeed, Ghana is a durable touchstone in the metamorphic landscapes of these remarkable poems, where we are as likely to encounter a snowstorm in Manhattan or a garden in New Mexico as a barbershop in Accra, where a Pentecostal baptism and the memory of a childhood beating can structure generations of familial narrative. Gyamfi is a poet of rare mythic abundance; his imagination seems to have no limits.--Linda Gregerson, author of Canopy
