Jericho Brown’s newest collection of poetry, The Tradition , was a National Book Award Finalist in 2019 . Lauded by critics as “ stunning ,” “ riveting ,” and one of the best poetry collections in 2019 , the gut-wrenchingly personal poems in his latest collection explore the complex tensions between love, violence, masculinity and trauma — all within the LGBTQ Black experience in the South. Brown was born in Shreveport, Louisiana and went to school in New Orleans. He’s lived everywhere from Houston to San Diego to Iowa, and today he’s Director of the Creative Writing Program at Emory University .