Things I Have Withheld: Exploring the consequences of being where you are not wanted

Kei Miller’s new collection of essays is a compelling exploration of what it means to be a black man in the modern age

Kei Miller, poet and author. Picture: Getty

FICTION

Things I Have Withheld

By Kei Miller

Canongate, €20.25

It wouldn’t be unusual for someone excited at being awarded a prestigious professorship to arrive so early for their first day’s work at a US university that the only other person there is the cleaning lady.

What is unusual – or sadly isn’t, depending on your skin colour – is what occurred to the Jamaican-born, award-winning poet and novelist Kei Miller when he did just ...