Ain't Burned All the Bright

The artwork in Ain’t Burned All the Bright often reinforces or even expands the meaning of the prose poetry on the page. Pick two or three examples that stand out to you and discuss the relationship between the words and the art.

The artwork in Ain’t Burned All the Bright has a very unique and specific style and feel, as if it was created using the limited materials the artist had on hand during lockdown. How does this style, and the book’s production, which attempts to directly reproduce a hand-made feel, relate to the broader themes explored in the text?

Ain’t Burned All the Bright makes use of a lot of deleted words—there are blank pages, crossed-out words, and remnants of words that have been erased. Why do you think Reynolds and Griffen chose to do this, rather than removing the words altogether? What is the effect of including these deleted words?

There is a lot of repetition throughout Ain’t Burned All the Bright—repeated words, phrases, images, and ideas. Select one of two of these repeated elements and discuss its meaning and impact. Does the element or its meaning change throughout the book?

Explore the use of color in Ain’t Burned All the Bright. How does Griffen use color to reinforce or expand the meaning of the words on the page? What colors stand out as significant, and how do they play off one another as the book progresses?

Familial relationships are at the core of Ain’t Burned All the Bright. By the end of the book, the narrator has come to realize how important his family is to his sense of well-being, but it does not start this way. Discuss the narrator’s relationship with his family members. What do they each mean to him? Why do you think his appreciation of them changes over the course of the narrative?

In many ways, Ain’t Burned All the Bright is a book about the experience of a very specific period in history—it makes clear references to the COVID-19 pandemic and the social unrest following the police killing of George Floyd. At the same time, it manages to be a book that is more universally about the experience of living under the weight of systemic racism and oppression. Explore how the book walks this fine line. What makes the book’s content specific and what makes it universal?

The narrator and his family all have different reactions to the various crises happening around them. Discuss how their reactions represent different forms of coping with stress, anxiety, and trauma. What are the pros and cons of each approach? What do you think is the book’s message about dealing with the stress and anxiety that comes from crises outside of your control?