Description: Randall James Tyrone's debut collection City of Dis melds questions of contemporary existence with medieval damnation, crafting a modern epic through free verse. In this urban "Inferno," the unnamed protagonist navigates a landscape pocked by histories of racial inequity and sounding of sirens, construction, and climate change, while bringing the messy edges of pop culture, capitalism, and existential dread to bear on arcane theology and an imagined Dante, who may not be as much of a stranger as we think to the speaker's plight.
Review Quotes:
"In City of Dis, Tryone employs ingenious sin/tax to plunge us into a world of constructive deep hallucinations that reimagine Dante's final rings of hell as a humidity-drenched corporatescape . . . a must-read debut."
--David Leftwich
--David Leftwich