The Gilded Auction Block: Poems

Written by Shane McCrae

Narrated by Shane McCrae

This program is read by the author.

An incisive new collection of poetry on political and contemporary themes

I’m made of murderers I’m made
Of nobodies and immigrants and the poor

and a whole / Family the mother’s
liver and her lungs

In The Gilded Auction Block, the acclaimed poet Shane McCrae considers the present moment in America on its own terms as well as for what it says about the American project and Americans themselves. In the audiobook’s four sections, McCrae alternately responds directly to Donald Trump and contextualizes him historically and personally, exploding the illusions of freedom of both black and white Americans.

A moving, incisive, and frightening exploration of both the legacy and the current state of white supremacy in this country, The Gilded Auction Block is an audiobook about the present that reaches into the past and stretches toward the future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Jul 16, 2019
• ISBN: 9781250254474

Shane McCrae

Shane McCrae is the author of several books of poetry, including In the Language of My Captor, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the William Carlos Williams Award; Sometimes I Never Suffered, shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize; and his most recent collection, The Many Hundreds of the Scent. McCrae is the recipient of a Whiting Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, a Lannan Literary Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He teaches at Columbia University and lives in New York City.