# Is "Citizen: An American Lyric" by Claudia Rankine a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine (Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, 2014) is identified by: Paperback original — Graywolf issued no trade hardcover, so a hardcover copy is not a first. US true first: Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 7 October 2014, ISBN 978-1-55597-690-3, a paperback original.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Paperback original — Graywolf issued no trade hardcover, so a hardcover copy is not a first
- First printing is identified on the copyright page: below the ISBN is a number line, and the lowest number present is the printing (this is Graywolf's own published guidance), so a first printing reads down to 1; a line reading down to 3, for example, is the third printing
- Textual first-printing point: page 134 in the first printing carries the date November 23, 2012 and a single memorial line naming Jordan Russell Davis
- Rankine deliberately expanded that page in successive printings, adding the names of further African Americans killed (Eric Garner, John Crawford, Michael Brown and others), so any copy showing additional names on page 134 is a later printing
- Graywolf publishes a PDF reproducing page 134 across ten printings for comparison
- The book had gone through at least twenty-two printings by August 2020, and later printings are otherwise visually near-identical to the first
- Publisher imprint reads Graywolf Press, Minneapolis

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Claudia Rankine |
| Publisher | Graywolf Press, Minneapolis |
| Year | 2014 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | Paperback original — Graywolf issued no trade hardcover, so a hardcover copy is not a first |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Paperback original — Graywolf issued no trade hardcover, so a hardcover copy is not a first. First printing is identified on the copyright page: below the ISBN is a number line, and the lowest number present is the printing (this is Graywolf's own published guidance), so a first printing reads down to 1; a line reading down to 3, for example, is the third printing. Textual first-printing point: page 134 in the first printing carries the date November 23, 2012 and a single memorial line naming Jordan Russell Davis. Rankine deliberately expanded that page in successive printings, adding the names of further African Americans killed (Eric Garner, John Crawford, Michael Brown and others), so any copy showing additional names on page 134 is a later printing. Graywolf publishes a PDF reproducing page 134 across ten printings for comparison. The book had gone through at least twenty-two printings by August 2020, and later printings are otherwise visually near-identical to the first.

## Is this the true first?
US true first: Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 7 October 2014, ISBN 978-1-55597-690-3, a paperback original. The first British edition followed from Penguin Books, London, 2 July 2015, ISBN 9780141981772, and is separately collected as the UK first. CORRECTION to the census claim: the first printing is NOT identified by the absence of award medallions. No source documents a medallion or award-sticker issue point; Citizen's awards (National Book Award finalist 2014, National Book Critics Circle Award, Forward Prize, Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, PEN Open Book Award) postdate the first printing but are not a documented point of issue. Identify by the number line and the page 134 state.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition documented. Because the book is a paperback original in continuous reprint with an unchanged cover design, later printings are easily mistaken for the first — the only reliable tells are the copyright-page number line and the expanded page 134 memorial list.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Citizen: An American Lyric* by Claudia Rankine a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/citizen-an-american-lyric
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.