Finna expresses the struggles of Black America using familiar cultural vernacular and Hip Hop to bring readers into a world masked by white institutions and standards that are imposed upon these Americans. Nate Marshall's narrator speaks about the other Nate Marshalls of the world and how he is not like them, but that they are connected in the way that life's struggles can emotionally wear them down. What Marshall brings to life in this collection is that we are all human and empathy is something we need to relearn in order for us to connect.

I wasn't familiar with Nate Marshall's work before getting an ARC from NetGalley, but I'd heard some buzz for Finna and decided to check it out.

I really appreciated this collection on blackness, on Chicago, on family, on names, and on language. There are some gorgeous turns of phrase and some really nice moments of circularity, like where the author explores his name and others sharing his same name, or where he explores the limitations that whiteness places on "acceptable" speech. Marshall also has several poems that follow a much more musical style and beg to be read aloud, like the work of Gwendolyn Brooks. As an example, here's the first stanza of an outstanding poem, "fiddy'leven":


how much is owed
to those who wore
the chains who tilled
the land who nursed
the babes who mixed
the grits who fried
the food who chopped
the wood who picked
the bolls who ran
the road who fought
the war who shared
the crop who made
the name who wore
the noose who Blacked
the codes who sparked
the schools who juked
the blues who showed
the soul who left
the south who stayed
the course who caught
the hell who marched
the march who broke
the strike who struck
the blow who took
the vote who held
the hood who housed
the club who queered
the notes who spun
the jams who funked
the flow who built
the thing who built
the thing who built
the thing? you know.


These poems aren't just static words on a page; they're living, asking you to mouth along. The meter has a percussive rhythm, and even in other poems, the rhymes or meter take a life of their own.


The poems where Marshall tackles language are the most engaging to me as a linguistics nerd (though, of course, the whole collection is lovely). It takes multiple forms:
- interrogating the intersection of masculinity and sex in "my homies ask if i'm tryna smash" ("our language for sex: / stain / smash / this is where we live / a land of impact & soiling / a gaggle of boys boasting / over hurt. our tongues / wagging, stupid flags / of a dumb dominion"),

- meditating on a favorite word in "scruples" ("O, small keeper of my failure / at the 4th grade spelling bee. / i loved the way my mouth / cupped your vowels / like a spoonful of newly cooled soup.")

- reclaiming slang as a valuable part of language and art in the titular "finna" ("my hope is like my language is / like my people: it's Black / & it's brown & it's alive / & it's laughing & it's growing & it's alive / & it's learning & it's alive & it's fighting & it's alive / & it's finna / take on this wide world / with a whole slang for possibility").

Nate Marshall's poetic voice is truly a gift to us all. He writes of the Black experience in America in such a profound way. A timely piece, given all that is happening currently in our country. Many thanks for an advanced read on this book!

I loved these poems. I think these poems will resonate with a wide audience, given where we are at this point in the US with the call for dismantling of white supremacy hitting a boiling point.

Nate Marshall writes about being a black man in America, oppression, and also hope, using AAVE.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

tl; dr: PREORDER/READ/BUY THIS BOOK!!!

i know of nate marshall through his membership in the dark noise collective (Danez Smith, Franny Choi, Jamila Woods etc.) but had not gotten around to reading his work. I was thrilled to find the new collection, 'Finna,' on netgalley, it took me a few poems to get the vibe of this collection but once i found the groove, i was completely entranced. i can't remember the last time i read a collection that used Black vernacular in a non-ironic or performative way. it was sooo refreshing! i read a lot of poetry (30+ collections a year) so it's rare that i read work that feels so fresh. once i finished it, i felt that warm feeling that listening to Solange's 'A Seat at the Table' gave me on the first listen. this collection is for US!! i think there's a lot that will resonate with a non-Black audience, but it was truly comforting to see certain facets of the Black experience represented in these pages. thank you, Nate, for writing this. we needed this. especially now.

some favorites: FINNA, what it is & will be, Oregon Trail, Harold's Chicken Shack #2

***I was provided an advanced digital review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Thank you to Random House & NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

Available August 11 2020

WOW. WOW. WOW. Keeping a close eye to the incredible poetry renaissance in the Chicago and its surrounding areas has been a constant source of joy for me over the last few years & Nate Marshall is one of those incredible emerging poets. Starting with "landless acknowledgements:, Marshall unrepentantly lays claim to his life as a black man from Chicago. By turns heartbreaking & explosive, the poems run together like a pack of hood teenagers on a Friday night. There is tragedy yes, but there is also strength, a great faith in the power of the people.. Finna should be mandatory reading for every high school and college freshman in America RIGHT NOW.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for giving me the opportunity to read this.

This collection of poetry was so enjoyable to read and I don't have the words to do it justice in a review. Marshall's words flow so naturally to me. Some poems spoke to me so strongly that I had to put the book down and give myself time to hold onto and think more about what I'd just read. This is an incredibly powerful collection that I think everyone should read, especially given recent events. Absolutely incredible. I can't wait to get a physical copy.

This collection is impeccable. Nate M. has a poetic voice that is so assured and confident and loving...it is a celebration of blackness, which I NEVER get tired of, but I love the investigation of the unexplainable magic of black English, all of the built-in isms that non-black authors never get right no matter how hard they try, and that weave themselves into the fabric of conversation of every pedigree: colloquial, familial, professional, academic, & c. Phenomenal work!!!

4.5/5 - ah! this is collection so special & refreshing. i've never read any of nate marshall's work so this was very new to me and i'm ready to read his other work ASAP. his poems exist at an intersection between rap/hip-hop & written verse that left me wanting nothing else but an audiobook. i really wanted to hear a recorded reading of all of these poems. they're so rhythmic and musical and gorgeous; i needed to hear them. there is something to be said about the way marshall breaks apart the already anti-ceremonial, un-graceful, transactional language of english. this collection is what happens when you drop a glass on the ground and the shards get caught by the sunlight coming from the kitchen window. right now, i'm only interested in this kind of play/work/framing of english - i'm only interested in the shards. i love poems that reconcile english's place place on the list of weaponry. this collection is timely, it's current, and it's fresh but it's also deeply personal, historically bound. Finna is a living document that fits on to a timeline of english, blackness, the intersections between the two, appropriation. and what marshall does with breath - where words cannot convey, where metaphors cannot be used as hiding places, this is where the poems succeed the most. this collection is not raw - it is seasoned, cooked, fully marinated. Finna is no leaky wound - it is fully healed.

i'm thankful to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this collection, i can't wait to hold a physical copy in my hands!

(also A+++ on the cover art)

(I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.)

Amazing. Nate Marshall covers so much about Blackness, language, Chicago, gender, and more here. The lines flow like music. Marshall somehow manages to put together poems about his shared name, his hometown, the word "finna," and the Oregon Trail and have them all feel cohesive. Can't wait for this to come out and others to experience it.

As an ELA teacher, I look for varied narratives that make all of my students feel welcome in the classroom. This collection of poetry by Marshall highlighting the Black voice and need to not discredit experiences, highlight ever-standing and ever-changing vocabulary, and engaging imagery should be read, shared, and enjoyed by a broad audience. I am left with many poems whose images I will not be able to forget, testifying to the narrative power and figurative language skills offered by the poet. I am eager to find more work from Nate Marshall to expose to my middle schoolers.

Thank you for the ARC, NetGalley.

I don't feel I could possibly have the words to do justice when talking about this collection of poems. The cadences are exquisite; they sound like music in my mind. There's tension and release, perfectly placed pauses in between rushes of words. As I was reading, I was reminded of how AAVE is policed, suppressed, censored, and even mocked outside of its community. Nate Marshall hands it to readers in all its stunning glory, exploring the lives, survival, and culture of Black Americans. I hesitate to say these poems are social commentary, even though they certainly are, because that phrase feels reductive, as if this is some philosophical exercise by someone outside the experience, which of course isn't the case. Marshall is really in touch with the working class: "i haven’t seen a week of mine end since i was at least 18. vacation, you a lie & i don’t lie down for much of anything these days" ("ode to vacation"). There was more than one moment where I read affirming, gender-inclusive statements, and that was wonderful to read coming from a cis author. And I love that the title poem comes almost at the end, with a hopeful, future-focused perspective: "my hope is like my language is like my people: it’s Black" ("FINNA"). This collection is a must-read, accessible even to those (like me) who don't always feel confident reading poetry.

Finna is a beautiful and powerful collection of poetry that shows the power of words & language. It highlights topics such as racism, culture, language, and family. The poems are powerful. Very well done.

Thank you to NetGalley and OneWorld Books for this ARC, out August 11!

This poem collection is a force of nature. It encompasses many things - how the author has navigated the world as a Black man, how he uses Black vernacular and what it means to him and those in his community, how he feels about sharing a name with all of the other Nate Marshalls of the world, even one who is a white supremacist, what family means, what his grandmother meant to him, racism, language in relation to how we talk about women, life in Chicago, among many other important things. Marshall is an excellent writer, and is able to invoke a lot of emotion in a very short set of words. His words flow so effortlessly that you hardly believe it when you're at the end so quickly. These poems give so much to think about, to question, to reread and understand, to learn and to teach from. This is a collection that I will be constantly talking about and pushing into the hands of friends as soon as it is published.

I think the most interesting poems in the book--they're conceptually fun and kind of moving--are the ones where he talks about sharing the name "Nate Marshall" with a white racist stranger from far away. There's a whole series about these, and none of the poems in the series go in quite the direction I expected them to.

This was a really great read. If you’re scared of poetry, this could be a great way to dive into that world; the poems are accessible but meaningful. Marshall’s work celebrates Black vernacular & explores the social quality & fluidity of language, which I find to be endlessly fascinating. I shared several of the poems with various people because I found so many of them to be too beautiful to keep to myself. It comes out in August!

I confess, I don't know a lot about poetry, but one of my goals this year has been to read more poetry and expand my knowledge. I'm very pleased that Finna by Nate Marshall was my first book of poems this year. In Finna Marshall examines Blackness in contemporary America, gendered language, cultural oppression and Black vernacular.

I found this collection to be really beautiful, and important in the current age. The poems were varied in tone and format. Poetry can be a bit intimidating, but Finna was accessible without being easy. Nate Marshall is a powerful poet, and his words were evocative. His words made me itch to hear them out loud.

I read all of Finna in one sitting, but this is a collection I plan on revisiting in bits and pieces.

As Marshall writes about finna, in the self-titled poem of the collection, "my hope is like my language is like my / people: it's Black / & it's brown & it's alive". The author's latest poetry volume is an exposé of Black life on the South Side of Chicago, especially its vernacular. Marshall leads us through the generational cycles of hardship faced in such communities, and the often inescapability of it: "you drink bad / water you gon' have bad blood that's just / good / sense." But also celebrates the hopes they can make the best of: their love of one another, each neighborhood's "Chick Shack".

There's an ever present loss of identity throughout, through the many Nate Marshall's of the world, (e.g. one of which is a white supremacist) but also a shared humanity between them, which goes unrecognized by many of the Nates. Even language itself is a challenge, with the author navigating the dichotomy between that of his academic occupations and the vitality of the finna-within. "many are still unwilling / to grow a vocabulary for personhood,/ even from the words already in them."

I enjoyed the use of different poetic devices throughout. My favorite was probably the embedded rap lyrics and references. There are custom layouts to drive the cadence, as well a section of upside down text, and occasional blanks or redactions. There is a very definite central aura to the collection, but still a good variety in expression that prevented me from getting bored as a reader.

I think there's something here for every reader. It's accessible enough even to those who aren't poetically-inclined, all too relatable for a community of readers who is often not given a voice, and critical voice for those who are move privileged to listen to.

Stunning in the same way that other collections like Swallowtail have been. Marshall's poetry is approachable and deep in the same breath, leaving me feeling like I was peeling it away layer by layer.

Finna is the latest collection by Nate Marshall. I became familiar with Marshall’s poetry a couple of years ago during National Poetry Month when I read his collection, Wild Hundreds. I was impressed by that collection and was excited to read his new collection.

The poems showcased in Finna show the poet’s progression as an artist since his prior collection. The collection contains 4 sections. One of the sections is entitled, “What’s My Favorite Word?” Lovers of hip hop recognize the nod to Too Short. Many of the poems exude hip hop culture. Another theme of the collection is Chicago, Marshall’s hometown. He brilliantly describes his childhood in Chicago as well as landmarks throughout the city.

Another aspect of the collection I enjoyed was quotes from different writers, poets and thinkers that enhanced Marshall’s poems.

I was given the opportunity to review an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley.