Refuse: Poems

Set against the backdrop of the Obama presidency, Julian Randall’s Refuse documents a young biracial man’s journey through the mythos of Blackness, Latinidad, family, sexuality and a hostile American landscape. Mapping the relationship between father and son caught in a lineage of grief and inherited Black trauma, Randall conjures reflections from mythical figures such as Icarus, Narcissus and the absent Frank Ocean. Not merely a story of the wound but the salve, Refuse is a poetry debut that accepts that every song must end before walking confidently into the next music.

“And no matter who would dare an argument, or seek to deny Randall’s utter personhood, Refuse is an inscription that won’t allow erasure.”

– Vievee Francis, Author of Forest Primeval

“Though these poems meddle in binaries and duality, they refuse to split the body and instead reveal the biracial bi voice haunting these pages as whole and wholly original. This debut joins that great lineage of Cave Canem Prize winners, and, once again, gives us not just a spellbinding collection of poetry, but announces a new and necessary voice in Black poetics.”

– Danez Smith, author of Don’t Call Us Dead

“Julian Randall’s hard-hitting debut is a dispatch straight from the crosshairs of Chump’s Amerikkka. In poems that are raw, urgent, and formally dexterous, Randall testifies against a state that would just as soon see him dead as silenced.”

– John Murillo, Author of Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry

“In its raw ferocity and scintillating intelligence, Randall’s debut stands with those of the best of new voices”

– Diego Báez, Booklist (Starred Review)