Rankine’s book-length poem, Citizen: An American Lyric, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award, PEN Open Book Award, and NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work. Narrated from the second person, each vignette asks its reader to place themselves within uncomfortable scenarios that get at the heart of racial identity in America. Rankine’s evocative language is gorgeous, the alchemy of dreams, take for instance, “The past is a life sentence, a blunt instrument aimed at tomorrow.” ‘Nuff said.