Kusunoki's newest collection of poetry is organized like a social studies syllabus and is based partly on a quote from the Guardian that states "...poetry is the new journalism." Kusunoki reflects on major events like the killings of Philando Castille and George Floyd, and on a more personal level, the death of his father. Keeping with the tradition of the teacher including the work of proteges, Kusunoki has included poems by some of his former students.
"Social Studies gently, deliberately, and with great vulnerability, holds open a space-time for something like participatory rumination. I was addressed, committed, and everything mattered."
JEANNE LUTZ, AUTHOR OF UNTIL THE KINGDOM COMES
"Observing a Japanese mentoring tradition, Kusunoki has taken the unique step of including poems by his former students in a third section called "Future Histories." Kusunoki's poems and those of his protégées' suggest that as a writer and a teacher, he's generous, broad-visioned, knowledgeable and poetic. We're lucky as readers to experience how this poet, whether keening, loving, or urging us to greater good, is "Sending my voice out to mingle/ With other songs."
MARGARET HASSE, AUTHOR OF SUMMONED, THE CALL OF GLACIER PARK, AND OTHER BOOKS
