Runagate: Songs of the Freedom Bound

Crystal Simone Smith's new poetry collection, Runagate, reimagines the experiences of enslaved and formerly enslaved persons in a stark and chilling response to the archives of chattel slavery: bills of sale, interviews, narratives, and fugitive runaway ads. Embodying the aesthetics and Japanese poetic forms haiku and tanka, her poems bear witness to the brutal and horrifying treatment of enslaved people and contrast their humanity with the inhumanity of their enslavers. In these poems, fugitive persons evade slave patrol hounds by climbing magnolia trees, use the cover of night and the detritus of a shipwreck to swim to freedom, and find temporary refuge in a cabin where a woman offers bread and water. Throughout, Smith poignantly envisions their flights to freedom--passages that were fueled by love, hope, and impossible dreams. She unceasingly gives voice to those who found courage in both bondage and freedom. In Runagate, the enslaved regain their stories and return to the sensory world.

Author: Crystal Simone Smith
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 05/16/2025
Pages: 104
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.34lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.25d
ISBN13: 9781478031819
ISBN10: 1478031816
BISAC Categories:
- Poetry | American | African American & Black
- Social Science | Cultural & Ethnic Studies | American | African American & Bl
- Poetry | Haiku

About the Author
Crystal Simone Smith is Instructor of the Thompson Writing Program at Duke University and author of Dark Testament: Blackout Poems.