Transit by Cameron Awkward-Rich is a quick but not an easy read. I read it in basically one sitting, and frankly, I am not truly sure what I read. Or I should say, I do not think I understand most of it. The text is obvious, you know the words, but some poems can be slightly abstract to some readers. There are themes that are repeated to expand on the growth of poet. There are poems about being black, being transgender, the people and the worlds reactions around the poet.
The book is less than 60 pages and most of the poems are large spaced; cover one page only and are set up in two-line stanzas adding to their brevity of length. The ones that are smaller spaced, still are not overly lengthy. The publisher copy describes this as the ability to “condense an essay’s worth of thought and theory into a few poignant lines.”
And while this is an interesting collection, it did not speak to me. A second reading would not be out of the question. There were some amazing lines that painted some amazing images, but I am not sure if I have interpreted them correctly. Therefore, I would not recommend this for someone just starting out in poetry. This is for someone who has some background. Yet, if you relate to the themes Awkward-Rich presents, you might find yourself among the poems.
Not only a poet (another collection due later this year) he is an assistant professor of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is also a critic and an editor at Muzzle magazine.