How the Word Is Passed is reviewed by Ploughshares which shares “[How the Word Is Passed is] an important and effective call for us to examine how it is we remember our past, and how central our historical memory is to our existence today.”
By Joel Pinckney
Ploughshares at Emerson College, June 1, 2021
How the Word Is Passed is recommended as one of Daily Beast’s “best summer reads of 2021.”
By Allison McNearney
The Daily Beast, May 30, 2021
Clint shares a lesson about how Colonies put laws in place to restrict the movement and freedoms of both enslaved people and free Black people alike.
By Clint Smith
Crash Course, May 29, 2021
How the Word Is Passed is recommended as one of Entertainment Weekly’s “15 books you need to read this June”
By Seija Rankin
Entertainment Weekly, May 28, 2021
How the Word Is Passed is recommended as one of “75 books you should read this summer” by Literary Hub
By Literary Hub
Literary Hub, May 28, 2021
How the Word Is Passed is recommended as one of Kirkus’ hottest summer reads of 2021.
By Kirkus Editors
Kirkus May 28, 2021
Clint is interviewed on Crooked Media’s Pod Save America.
By Tommy Vietor
Crooked Media, May 27, 2021
Clint is interviewed on Brené Brown’s podcast Unblocking Us.
By Brené Brown
Unblocking Us, May 26, 2021
How the Word Is Passed is recommended as one of Time’s “36 books you need to read this summer.”
By Raisa Bruner , Annabel Gutterman and Cady Lang
Time, May 25, 2021
How the Word Is Passed is named as one of the “16 best books of June” by Kirkus.
By Kirkus Editors
Kirkus, May 25, 2021
Clint shares a lesson about how the legal system can be used to rectify injustices in the story of Elizabeth Key, who in 1665 won her freedom in a court in Virginia.
By Clint Smith
Crash Course, May 22, 2021
How The Word Is Passed is named as one of the “28 new books you need to add to your summer reading list ASAP” by Buzzfeed.
By Arianna Rebolini and Tomi Obaro
Buzzfeed, May 21, 2021
Clint shares a lesson about the role that slavery played in early American economy and how slavery became a legally accepted practice in the first place, and how it contributed to the colony’s early economic success.
By Clint Smith
Crash Course, May 15, 2021
Clint Smith’s gifts as both a poet and a scholar make How the Word Is Passed a richly provocative read about places where the story of American slavery lives on.
By Alden Mudge
BookPage, May 14, 2021
For some Americans, history isn’t the story of what actually happened; it’s the story they want to believe.
By Clint Smith
The Atlantic, May 10, 2021
Clint shares a lesson about the Transatlantic Slave Trade, which brought millions of captive Africans to the Americas between the 16th and 19th centuries, with the largest number of people trafficked between 1700 and 1808.
By Clint Smith
Crash Course, May 7, 2021
The writer and poet talks about novelistic nonfiction and why he thinks of his grandparents as monuments.
By Clint Smith and Ben Purkert
Guernica, May 3, 2021
For many of us, when we see the Floyds, we see our family.
By Clint Smith
The Atlantic, April 21, 2021