Claim Tickets for Stolen People by Quintin Collins

Claim Tickets for Stolen People by Quintin Collins


Congratulations to Quintin Collins for his latest collection of poems, Claim Tickets for Stolen People. This range of poetic forms shows “the resilience of Blackness in a colonized world.” The stories about his daughter, life in Chicago and Boston, and white violence all come together to honor “Black grief, Black anger, Black resistance, Black hope—and the persistence of Black love.” It was published by Mad Creek Books and was selected by Marcus Jackson as the winner of The Journal‘s 2020 Charles B. Wheeler Poetry Prize.

Reading Claim Tickets for Stolen People creates the feeling one has studying a transcendental sonogram: Collins’s poetry brings inner life into focus. Blackness is reclaimed, celebrated, embodied. He can give shape to Barack Obama’s tan suit and Jimi Hendrix’s guitar. He can be furious, funny, and fatherly in a single poem, with a range as broad as his compassion. This is a marvelous book. Claim Tickets for Stolen People gives shape to our magical, mercurial world.

Terrance Hayes

Claim Tickets for Stolen People is available now! Use this link to get 30% off and free U.S. shipping with the code TICKETS.

Quintin has upcoming spring reading dates that can be found here. The next two coming up are April 5 at 7 pm EDT: Poetry Night at Sitwell’s Reading Series & Open Mic with Chris L. Butler (Virtual) and April 23 at 7:30 pm EDT: The Notebooks Collective Reading with Daniel B. Summerhill and José Angel Araguz (Virtual).

Collins deftly speaks back to every accusation, rumor, and lie America has flung across his back, devours every myth America trembles behind, and reclaims history in every ordinary moment of these poems. In every ordinary thing he has spoken here, he re-discovers joy, wonder, sorrow, and fear.

Mark Turcotte

His poem “Rules for Conducting Yourself in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston” can be found in Issue 26 and Quintin can be found on Twitter and on his website.