Description: A California Review of Books Best Poetry Book of 2025
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: Brian Gyamfi has a real gift for description. . . .His real gift in What God in the Kingdom of Bastards is a kind of playful semi-surrealism. . . .The book's subject matter is often serious, but Gyamfi's secret weapon is his brashness and sense of the absurd, which he brandishes with deadly effect throughout.-- "California Review of Books"