Paper Pistol

Finalist, 2026 Miller Williams Poetry Prize

Following in the footsteps of poets like Hanif Abdurraqib, John Murillo, and Robert Hayden, Raphael Jenkins’s Paper Pistol considers tenderness, heteronormativity, male friendship, grief, and the various violences implemented by and against Black men. Channeling a multitude of speakers, this collection explores Black fatherhood and “the totems we bequeath” to our young, whom the “hunter . . . see[s as] a field of bucks instead of a / field of boys. What marred your vision & made us look so killable?” With humor and vivid imagery, Paper Pistol ultimately champions familial care and poetry as the ultimate weaponry, even in the wake of generational violence. “If a pistol were made of paper,” the poet dreams. “If a piece / of paper were capable of killing. If a peace. If peace / were possible.”

Raphael Jenkins is a chef and writer and former Periplus Fellow. A Detroit native, he currently resides in Kentucky with his partner and their son. Paper Pistol is his first book.