AVAILABLE IN A LIMITED EDITION OF 240 BOXES

This is Nikky Finney’s Sweet Box of Words, a special limited box set of three hardback editions of the poet’s 2nd, 3rd, and 4th poetry collections. The books were printed by Northwestern University Press, in Chicago, Illinois in 2013. The cover image found on The World Is Round is a photograph of Nikky’s mother Frances Davenport Finney taken in 1951. The cover image on Rice is a photograph of Nikky’s 4th great paternal grandmother Susan Epps Finney, taken in 1905. The cover image on Head Off & Split is a photograph of Nikky taken in 1984 by Jim Alexander of Atlanta, Georgia. The drop-spine box that holds these books was crafted and handmade by Alex Brooks in Lexington, Kentucky. The orange fabric that covers each set is cut from the same bolt of 100% pearl linen cloth. The inner ivory lining is acid-free and archival.  The poet’s signature has been printed on the back of each individual book and hand-drawn on the front of the box, by the poet, in indelible ink.  With this Sweet Box of Words, the poet wishes the reader a life full of radical, unflinching, beautiful language.

Read the Sweet Box of Words release message from Nikky.

Each box comes with its own card of authenticity. Click here to view a sample.

View the hardcover books here.

View the pricing information here {PDF}, and contact Vaughan Ashlie Fielder at The Field Office to place an order.

RICE

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In Rice, her second volume of poetry, Nikky Finney explores the complexity of rice as central to the culture, economy, and mystique of the coastal South Carolina region where she was born and raised. The prized Carolina Gold rice paradoxically made South Carolina one of the most oppressive states for slaves and also created the remarkable Gullah culture on the coastal islands. The poems in Rice compose a profound and unflinching journey connecting family and the paradoxes of American history, from the tragic times when African slaves disembarked on the South Carolina coast to the triumphant day when Judge Ernest A. Finney Jr., Nikky’s father, was sworn in as South Carolina’s first African American chief justice. Images from the Finney family archive illustrate and punctuate this collection. Rice showcases Finney’s hungry intellect, her regional awareness and pride, and her sensitivity to how cultures are built and threatened.

THE WORLD IS ROUND

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The World Is Round, Nikky Finney’s third volume of poetry, collects the wisps of memory we carry with us throughout our earthly lives and weaves them into deft and nuanced poems that emphasize understanding the cycles of life. The settings offer a view into the kaleidoscope of human experience: the sweetness and shock of family life, the omnipresent wash of memory, and the ebullience of warm Southern air. The World Is Round carries with it an implicit challenge—to the author as a poet, and to the reader as a fellow human—to see the characters and details and events of our lives with clarity, fearlessness, and love. The result is poems that range the gamut of human reach and resilience, fury and frailty. The poet’s vision of community requires understanding and tolerance from every breathing soul. Finney illuminates the cruelties of the sometimes gawking, narrow-minded world and makes a plea for compassion inspired by our common humanity.

2011 NATIONAL BOOK
AWARD WINNER

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In praise of Head Off & Split

The poems in Nikky Finney's breathtaking new collection Head Off & Split sustain a sensitive and intense dialogue with emblematic figures and events in African-American life: from Civil Rights matriarch Rosa Parks, to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, from a brazen girl strung out on lightning, to a terrified woman abandoned on a rooftop during Hurricane Katrina. Her poet's voice is defined by an intimacy, which holds a soft yet exacting-eye on the erotic, on uncanny political and family events, like her mother's wedding waltz with S.C. Senator Strom Thurmond, and then again on the heart-breaking hilarity of an American President's final state of the Union address. Artful and intense, Finney's poems ask us to be mindful of what we fraction, fragment, cut off, dice, dishonor, or throw away, powerfully evoking both the lawless and the sublime.

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