Poets Turned Novelists

Poets Turned Novelists

This article relates to Yr Dead

Yr Dead is author Sam Sax's debut novel, but not their first published work; they have previously published four chapbooks and three full collections of poetry, one of which won the James Laughlin Award and another of which won the National Poetry Series. Many other well-established poets have also turned to fiction with great success. A few of them are featured below.

Ocean Vuong
Ocean Vuong is known for his emotionally charged work that explores sexuality, Vietnamese American identity, and human connection. His debut collection Night Sky with Exit Wounds was published in 2016 to much critical acclaim and a string of major awards, including the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Whiting Award. He followed it up with the 2019 novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, which was a New York Times bestseller and was nominated for the National Book Award. In 2022, he returned to poetry with his latest collection, Time Is a Mother.

Hala Alyan
Hala Alyan is a Palestinian American writer and clinical psychologist whose work often explores themes of identity, trauma, and displacement. She has published two novels: Salt Houses (2017) and The Arsonists' City (2021). Before turning to fiction, she published three full collections of poetry and her work was featured in numerous journals and literary magazines. Her most recent poetry collection, The Moon That Turns You Back, was published in 2024.

Paul Beatty
Paul Beatty is probably best known for his 2015 novel The Sellout, which was awarded the Man Booker Prize, making Beatty the first American to win; before The Sellout, he had published three other novels. Before he turned to fiction, however, he was trained as a poet. He studied creative writing at Brooklyn College under Allen Ginsberg, among other writers, and first came to public attention in 1990 when he was named the first grand poetry slam champion of the Nuyorican Poets Café. He published two poetry collections, Big Bank Take Little Bank (1991) and Joker, Joker, Deuce (1994).

Kae Tempest
Kae Tempest was already a respected and award-winning performance poet and recording artist when they released their debut novel, The Bricks That Built the Houses, in 2016. They had won the Ted Hughes award for their "spoken story" Brand New Ancients, and their rap album Everybody Down was shortlisted for the Mercury music prize. The Bricks That Built the Houses retells the story of Everybody Down but stretches it into a different form and genre.

Andrew McMillan
Andrew McMillan's work often explores mental health, sexuality, masculinity, and desire. He has published three poetry collections: physical (2015), playtime (2018), and pandemonium (2021); his poetry has won numerous major awards, and physical was the only poetry collection ever to win the Guardian first book award. His debut novel Pity was published in 2024.

Filed under Books and Authors

This article relates to Yr Dead. It first ran in the September 18, 2024 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.