The people know, it’s winter
Lord knows
It’s winter in America
And ain’t nobody fighting
’Cause nobody knows what to save…
– Gil Scott-Heron, Winter in America, 1974
Winter in America (Again
Winter in America (Again
Poets Respond to 2024 Election
Anthology
Poem: “Condoms, Naloxone” by Theresa Whitehill, page 223
Published: January 2025
Lead Editors: Katie Sarah Zale & Paul E. Nelson
Editorial Board: allia abdullah-matta, CChristy White, Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, Robert Lashley, Roxi Power, Theresa Whitehill
Preface: Katie Sarah Zale & Paul E. Nelson
Afterword: Jason Wirth
Publisher: Greg Bem, Carbonation Press
Paperback, 6″ x 9″, 64 pages
ISBN 9781300704416
Cover art by Jasper Hoffman
Cover design by Roberta Hoffman
https://www.winterinamerica.org/
Background: Poets from the United States and beyond responded to the 2024 Presidential election and contributed to the anthology through a call to action by poets Katie Sarah Zale and Paul E. Nelson. The book title is an homage to composer and lyricist Gil Scott-Heron’s Winter in America, his 1974 album, released with keyboardist Brian Jackson. Scott-Herron’s lyrics and musical compositions were a poetic critique of early 1970s America. The album is regarded as a masterpiece of political expression. The project was also inspired by the work of poet Sam Hamill (Zale is writing his biography), honoring his commitment to the tenets of Zen Buddhist practice.
Zale and Nelson called together a board of co-editors to review and select the poems for the project. Their idea for the anthology, and the poems it includes, were rooted in a belief that the incoming administration would not relieve or heal us from our nation’s past, specifically, the destruction of the environment, the unbridled use of power, the pervasive narrative that Black lives do not matter, patriarchy, reproductive injustice for women, silent support for the US prison-industrial complex, and the lack of compassion for diverse gender identity, immigrants, the indigenous, and unsheltered populations. The editorial team worked tirelessly for six weeks to publish this anthology by the day of the January 20, 2025 inauguration.
In the fall of 2025, poet and co-editor Theresa Whitehill attended the Cascadia Poetry Festival in Seattle, Washington and as part of an event dedicated to the recent publication, performed her contribution to the anthology, the poem “Condoms, Naloxone.” The video linked in the left side margin is of her reading of the poem, which was used to publicize a call for entries to a follow-up publication, Winter in America (Still, due out in the summer of 2026.