'What a gift that Danez Smith, one of our greatest living poets, serves as our guide through this stunning collection of Hughes' early work' Clint Smith, author of ABOVE GROUND and HOW THE WORD IS PASSED

Before Langston Hughes and his literary prowess became synonymous with American poetry, he was an eighteen-year-old on a train to Mexico City, seeking funds to pursue his passion. His early poems were written without formal training, often on the back of napkins and envelopes, and were inspired by the sights and sounds of Black working-class people he encountered in his early life.

Blues in Stereo is a posthumous collection of these early works, in which we see Langston Hughes like we've never seen him before. In the intimate pages of his handwritten journals, you will travel with Hughes outside of Harlem as he ventures to the American South and Mexico, sails through the Caribbean and becomes the only Harlem Renaissance poet to visit Africa. He celebrates love as a tool of liberation in his poems and journal entries. His songs included showcase musicality of verse poetry. And the book even includes a play he co-wrote with Duke Ellington with a full score that experiments with rhythm and structure.

Blues in Stereo portrays a young man coming of age in a changing world. Page by page, a young, fresh-faced Hughes contends with matters beyond his years with raw talent. National Book Award nominated poet Danez Smith offers their insight and notes on themes, challenges and obsessions that Hughes's early work contains. Blues in Stereo foreshadows a master poet that will go on to define literature for centuries to come.

'Allows us to see the great poet [Hughes] would become for the young genius he was' Jericho Brown, author of THE TRADITION