Description
“I’m Not a Good Person, I’m a New Yorker is a thrilling symphony orchestration dedicated to the city that never sleeps. As the conductor, Jamal Hodge masterfully captures life in New York City, the good, the bad, and the ugly, in poignant and sometimes funny poems that reflect the multi-faceted layers of being in the metropolis that is a force of nature because of the humans that live there. Hodge’s fearless ability to wrench open his heart and soul through writing brings me back, again and again, to his work.”—Linda D. Addison, award-winning author, HWA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, and SFPA Grand Master
“The poems in Jamal Hodge’s collection dare you to think, to blink, to laugh, to wince, and even to love. Even if you’ve never been to New York, you’ll recognize yourself within these odes and shouts and critiques of the world’s greatest city.”—Paul Tremblay, New York Times Bestselling author of Horror Movie and The Cabin at the End of the World
“The poems in I’m Not A Good Person, I’m A New Yorker are an insightful, unflinching, funny, and poignant love letter to the Big Apple! If you want to hear the heartbeat of NY, read this!”—Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Red Empire and Cold War
“Simply stunning. This is a sweeping and heartfelt poetry collection that captures the beauty, grime, heartbreak, and soul of New York City. This is essential reading.”—Pedro Iniguez, Bram Stoker, and Elgin Award-winning author of Mexicans on the Moon: Speculative Poetry from a Possible Future
“Jamal Hodge channels the spirits of Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and other poets of the Harlem Renaissance with poems like “How Do You Save A Black Man In America” in this beautifully crafted, bittersweet love note to New York City. He speaks with the voice of the Ancestors on cuts as raw and deep as a Ma Rainey song in poems like “Stroking” and “Little Red, 1979.” And while horror and dark fantasy themes run through it, with callbacks to fairy tales (Rapunzel and Little Red Riding Hood) and body-horror imagery in poems like “Maggots on Macys” and many references to roaches and rats throughout, this is definitely the most literary of his poetry collections. As complicated and broody as a cup of dark artisanal coffee and served piping hot, I’m Not a Good Person, I’m a New Yorker touches on the raw-nerve edges of what it means to not just survive, but thrive as a Black man in a fast-talking capitalist culture designed to destroy all sense of self.”—Sumiko Saulson, 2x Bram Stoker Nominated Author of Melancholia: A Book of Dark Poetry
“Six sets of 54-inch-wide mouths slide open,/ regurgitating our exit,/ a joyless mass of walking bones,/ ready to zombie the day” – lines from Transit Zombies that blew me away. Many of Hodge’s poems read like a rap but, unlike most rap, resonate within/without cultural differences, easy to follow into the scope of reality of living life in New York. Be a special visitor to be shown around town by the passionate soul of a native poet.”—Marge Simon, Grand Master Poet, multiple Bram Stoker winner
“Jamal Hodge remixes the city of glass and steel to find the human pulse pounding throughout the pavement. This isn’t a collection of New York City sonnets, it’s a completely new map of the Big Apple. Read I’m Not a Good Person, I’m a New Yorker and get lost in this blissful vision of the city that never sleeps… I’m loving living in it.”—Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Wake Up and Open Your Eyes
“Jamal Hodge never shies away from the fascinating grit of life in his poetry. His ability to incorporate the dreams and promises of New York City alongside the harsher realities is done in such a captivating way. What does morality mean when facing the issues of the current world? How do we find hope and beauty between that darkness? Hodge’s contemplative poems and reflection on identity, place, and connection tackle these subjects and more, all through compelling lines and steel-sharp imagery.”—Sara Tantlinger, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Devil’s Dreamland
“Jamal Hodge unearths a visceral understanding of the rats and people who inhabit the dark cracks and grimy layers of the Big Apple. This must-read collection cuts to the core and bares a beautiful dark heart. Hodge’s poems use deft wordplay, slant rhyme, and a rhythm that throbs with a love-hate relationship. I highly recommend this poignant collection, which creates a mosaic of cultures and lives that are New York.”—Colleen Anderson, Rhysling Award and SFPA poetry contest winner
“I’m Not a Good Person, I’m a New Yorker is a confessional love letter wrapped in the unapologetic honesty of someone who has lived enough life to stop pretending. This collection doesn’t ask for forgiveness or permission. It simply tells the truth, the way New Yorkers do: fast, raw, and with a strange, unexpected tenderness hiding underneath the grit.
These poems walk the long blocks of memory and identity, sidestepping nostalgia in favor of something more honest: survival, humor, and the stubborn spark that keeps us human even when the world tries to sand us down. It’s the city as mirror and myth, as adversary and alibi, as the place that teaches you to sharpen your tongue and soften your heart at the same time.
This book is for anyone who’s ever felt too much, cared too loudly, or learned to carry themselves like a skyscraper…a little battered by weather, a little worn by time, but still impossibly, defiantly standing.”—Angela Yuriko Smith, former president of the Horror Writers Association, publisher of Space and Time magazine, multiple award-winning author, and two-time Bram Stoker Award winner
“Darkly hilarious and brutally honest, this mixtape of poetic truth captures the endless pulse of a city that never stops taking or giving. Jamal Hodge moves us through it like a rideshare driver through traffic with his radio blasting: relentless, dangerous, fascinating, with a tracklist shaped by struggle, survival, love, and fleeting moments of grace. I will smell and taste this city on me forever.”—Michael Bailey, multi-award-winning author and editor; not a bad person, a prior Californian who’d never survive New York
“One of our most compelling writers of dark poetry, Jamal Hodge delves deep into urban sharp edges and the soft souls with thick skins who inhabit them. This poetry collection echoes with all the brawl and sprawl of New York City and the voice of an author shaped by its streets and people. Beautiful words for a city that can often be both ugly and inspiring.”—James Chambers, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of A Bright and Beautiful Eternal World
“I’m Not a Good Person, I’m a New Yorker isn’t just a poetry compilation. This is a dedication, a love letter, and a eulogy to something still very much alive. If you’re from any of the five boroughs, you will love this, even more so if your childhood predates the internet.”—Steven Van Patten, award-winning horror and dark fiction writer. Co-host of the Beef, Wine & Shenanigans podcast
“Powerful, painful, personal, rhythmic, raging and relevant. I’m Not a Good Person, I’m a New Yorker is a collection to devour and then return to for repeat feastings.”—HorrorTree
