Patricia Smith is an inductee of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, a recipient of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for Lifetime Achievement, and a winner of the National Book Award for Poetry. She is the author of nine acclaimed books of poetry, including Unshuttered; Incendiary Art, finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize and winner of the 2018 Kingsley and Kate Tufts Poetry Award, the 2017 Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the 2018 NAACP Image Award; Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah, winner of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets; and Blood Dazzler, a National Book Award finalist. A Guggenheim Fellow, a National Endowment for the Arts grant recipient, a finalist for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and a four-time individual champion of the National Poetry Slam, Smith is a creative writing professor in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University and a former distinguished professor at the City University of New York. She lives in New Jersey with her husband.

Named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly and Electric Literature "Patricia Smith's The Intentions of Thunder chronicles America's traditions, tragedies, and triumphs with steadfast invention. Every book since her groundbreaking debut has been a fusion of form and feeling. Her work redefines the relationship between spoken and written poetry. These new and selected poems are personal while communal; immediate while historical; demonstrative while sublime. In The Intentions of Thunder, language itself becomes weather-charged, clarifying, and resounding, a form of resurrection and survival." -National Book Award Judges' Citation "Smith's work is like the God-clap announced in its title, both familiar and utterly unfathomable in the intricacies of its raw power . . . The Intentions of Thunder is a magnificent collection that allows us to marvel at the intricacies of Smith's work while feeling its fundamental, powerful truth resonate deep in our bones." -The Indianapolis Review "Smith's astonishing volume of selected and previously uncollected work reveals memory to be an act of defiance and love in poems that resurrect past voices and rejoice in the spirit of Black joy. It's an unforgettable offering from one of the most important voices in poetry." -Publishers Weekly "The Intentions of Thunder is much like its author: abundant, brilliant, and unprecedented. Each book's selections are introduced in rhythmic vignettes, which add surity to the impression that as time went on, poetry's possibilities multiplied because Smith multiplied them." -Poetry Northwest "[Smith's] uncanny ear and powerfully empathic imagination bring to life Black figures . . . Readers will find themselves forever changed by Smith's spirited voice." -Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Publisher: Scribner Book Company

Pub date: 2026-09-15

Length: 352 pages