Griots: Keepers of the Story

Unicorn Press, 2026

“Griots presents evocative haibun by five accomplished poets and situates this centuries-old Japanese form within the African American storytelling tradition. The powerful imagery, insights, memories, and revelations demonstrate crucial ways the past informs the present and affirm the vital importance of keeping stories alive for future generations.”

– CE ROSENOW, author of Japanese Forms in American Poetry

Common Sense (1776), Addressed to Today’s Citizens of America: An Erasure

Beacon Press, 2026

Common Sense is a powerful work that exposes the uncomfortable truth about America’s founding text. While Common Sense is celebrated as a cornerstone of American democracy, Thomas Paine’s arguments for “total freedom and equality” were written for white men—completely excluding women and people of color from his vision of liberation. Through innovative erasure poetry, Smith transforms this foundational document into a mirror reflecting both our nation’s incomplete promises and today’s ongoing struggle for true equality.

By making Paine’s original text translucent and highlighting specific words, she reveals new meanings that speak to the experiences of ALL Americans. This creative reinterpretation arrives at a crucial moment—just as America approaches its 250th anniversary in 2026.

Runagate: Songs of the Freedom Bound

Duke University Press, 2025

Winner of the 2025 North Carolina Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry
Finalist for the Haiku Foundation Distinguish Book Award

“The voices of the ransomed African Americans that Crystal Simone Smith reclaims in Runagate are resolutely alive. Smith captures the emotive and embodying possibilities of haiku and tanka to invite readers to reckon with their rejection of ‘the laws of slavery’ and invite us to imagine their lives beyond the confines of the posters and capture notices that once held their histories. This is the poetry of destiny, revealing Smith’s grasp of the infinite possibilities of formal poetics and of the living spirits who dared to claim freedom for themselves and for those of us who are blessed to hear their stories.”

– Sheila Smith McKoy, author of The Bones Beneath

Dark Testament

Henry Holt and Co., 2023

The Children’s Book Council Notable Social Studies List Award, 2024

Dark Testament gives voice to the mournful dead, their lives unjustly lost to violence, and to the grieving chorus of protestors in today’s Black Lives Matter movement, in search of resilience and hope. With poems found within the text of George Saunders’s Lincoln in the Bardo, Smith embarks on an uncompromising exploration of collective mourning and crafts a masterwork that resonates far beyond the page.

Ebbing Shore

Horse & Buggy Press, 2022

Winner of the 2022 Haiku Foundation Touchstone Distinguish Book Award

Ebbing Shore is a limited-edition book of haiku designed by Dave Wofford of Horse and Buggy Press. As a poet of African descent writing haiku, Crystal’s approach, while conjured by the natural world, often shifts to that of cultural experiences. The focus is often historical, dating back to American slavery.

$15.00 including shipping

One Window’s Light

Unicorn Press, 2017

“This collection is like a window that presents the light of insights into African American history and culture and offers fresh haiku for the reader to see, hear, touch, smell, and taste for a growth of sensibility, a moment of enlightenment, a rhythm of creative thinking, and an appreciation of African American heritage. The most impressive part of this collection is its focus on environment and current events, offering a clear point of view that haiku is not just about nature; it is also about human nature and society.”

– JOHN ZHENG,
Editor of African American Haiku: Cultural Visions