Stakes is High (2020)
Winner of the 2020 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction
Brave, clear-eyed, and passionate, Stakes Is High is the book we need to guide us past crisis mode and through an uncertain future.
“Mychal Denzel Smith’s razor-sharp manifesto demands us to question the unexamined inequity built in to the individualist core of the problematic concept of the “American Dream.” Smith dares readers not just to rethink and reckon but to undo what racism, carcerality, greed, heteropatriarchy, and state-sanctioned suffering have wrought on our society. Each impassioned sentence is meticulously crafted and poignant, as the author argues, succinctly and vigorously, that we are the change we’ve been waiting for and our direct communal actions might be the only way to move toward a more progressive, inclusive future. With no word wasted, Smith delivers the book of our fraught moment.” ―Kirkus Prize Judges’ statement
"[Smith] is sharply self-aware, and he would seem to expect his reader to approach his fine-honed argument with the same seriousness. Doing so is well worth the effort. An urgent and provocative work that deserves the broadest possible audience."―Kirkus Reviews, starred
"Slim, impactful....Stakes Is High is a polemic in the best sense of the word, holding up a mirror to America in the hope that a clear-eyed glimpse of its failings will assist in the never-ending struggle to bring about the righteous nation it has always aspired to be."―Booklist, starred
"Smith addresses familiar topics through a fresh lens in these searing essays. Infused with righteous indignation and astute observation, this is a must-read progressive polemic.”―Publishers Weekly, starred
"With searing vision and unwavering clarity, Mychal Denzel Smith dismantles our most enduring myths and dangerous national illusions. His argument is personal, intimate. It calls on us, line by line, to do the hard work of truthful living: to hold past and present, love and criticism, up in equal measure. Stakes Is High will undoubtedly prove to be one of the most important works of the decade; as social critique, as personal essay, as a master class in language. Keep it within arm's length; you'll be reaching for it long after you've read the last line."―Téa Obreht, author of Inland
"Stakes Is High is Mychal Denzel Smith's gift to us. With compassion and intelligence, he shows us what justice is meant to be in America."―Common
"Mychal Denzel Smith has written an emotional break-up letter with hope. In his meditations on the pillars of American life, Smith challenges us to accept our complicity in the systems that link our fortunes to our oppressions. It is elegantly written and lovingly argued."―Tressie McMillan Cottom, author of Thick: And Other Essays
"I want this book in the hands of everyone it would affect, which is to say, those with power and those lacking power; those of every race and ethnicity who are affected by the United States government; those who have hope, those who do not, and those who are somewhere in between. Smith writes with urgency and brilliance, honing prose to a fine glimmer as he demonstrates, again and again, life after the American Dream."―Esmé Weijun Wang, author of The Collected Schizophrenias
"Mychal Denzel Smith's Stakes is High is the book we need. It dismantles American lies and instead offers a truth that feels like fire. Smith moves from point to point with a brilliant agility founded on a deep understanding of our history. A truly spectacular book."―Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Friday Black
"Stakes Is High is that rare book written before the pandemic that predicts the American response to the pandemic and also provides a soulful, rigorous way out of the destruction. Mychal Denzel Smith is the rarest of tenacious writers who remind us that the only way into a dignified free future is backwards. And our refusal to go walk back together makes the stakes highest for the most vulnerable children of tomorrow."―Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy: An American Memoir
"Nuanced, intimate, and sharp in its view of America's history and present, Mychal Denzel Smith's Stakes Is High offers a clear-eyed view of this nation's inequities, shortcomings, and self-deceptions. It's a beautifully written, timely and illuminating book."―Rebecca Traister, author of Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger
"Stakes Is High is a passionate, urgent book, a personal account of a contemporary New York political education, and a call to confront the emergency with clarity and truthfulness about the history that brought us here."―Hari Kunzru, author of White Tears
