[African-American History Month] Seven contemporary poets to check out this week

"Carl Phillips" by David Shankbone (2007).
License: CCA Share-Alike 3.0 Unported.

February is National African-American History Month. Writer's Rainbow will be posting a weekly citation of individuals who helped to put African-American literature on the map. This year's theme, chosen by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, is "Black Women in American Culture and History." Writer's Rainbow joins in celebrating those African American women who helped to shape our nation's rich multicultural identity and to remind us all to study and reflect on the value of their contributions to American history. Thus, my citations will lean toward women's voices in literature. Writers are listed in alphabetical order.

TOI DERRICOTTE

• Born in Hamtramck, Michigan (1941 -    )
• Best known for co-founding Cave Canem with poet Cornelius Eady.
• Poetry books:
• The Undertaker's Daughter (2011)
• Tender (1997)
• Captivity (1990)
• Natural Birth (1983)
• The Empress of the Death House (1978)

What critics said about Captivity: "Poems that stick with you like a song that won’t stop repeating itself in your brain, poems whose cadences burrow into your bloodstream, orchestrating your breathing long before their sense attaches its hooks to your heart."—Washington Post

CORNELIUS EADY

• Born in Rochester, NY (1954 -    )
• Best known for co-founding Cave Canem with Toi Derricotte. Also nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1992.
• Poetry books:
• Brutal Imagination (2001) 
• the autobiography of a jukebox (1997)
• You Don't Miss Your Water (1995)
• The Gathering of My Name (1991)
• BOOM, BOOM, BOOM: A Chapbook (1988)
• Victims of the Latest Dance Craze (1986)
• Kartunes (1980)

What critics said about Brutal Imagination: "The connection in Eady’s art between music and drama, drawing on their close associations in African-American traditions, has never been more important than in this work..." — Kirkus Reviews

CHERRYL FLOYD-MILLER

• (1967 -    )
• Best known for being inspired by African American cultural icons like Muhammed Ali and Billie Holliday. She also appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show for the "Heart of a Woman" Book Club segment with Dr. Maya Angelou and received a key to the city of Indianapolis for her work as a journalist and emerging writer there. 
• Poetry books:
• Exquisite Heats (2008)
• Utterance (2007)
• Metropolis (2007)
• Chops (2005)

What critics said about Exquisite Heats: "An incredible collection of poetry! From villanelles to bop, Floyd-Miller's control of all forms is to be applauded. The poems are dramatic, clever and infused with her Southern heritage. This is a must-read!"—Author and editor Collin Kelley

TERRANCE HAYES

• Born in Columbia, SC (1971-    )
• Best known for winning the National Book Award for Poetry in 2010. 
• Poetry books:
• Lighthead (2010)
• Wind in a Box (2006)
• Hip Logic (2002)
• Muscular Music (1999; reissued in 2006)

What critics say about Hayes: "First you'll marvel at his skill, his near-perfect pitch, his disarming humor, his brilliant turns of phrase. Then you'll notice the grace, the tenderness, the unblinking truth-telling just beneath his lines, the open and generous way he takes in our world."—Cornelius Eady

MAJOR JACKSON

• Born in Philadelphia, PA (1978 -    )
• Best known for working as the poetry editor for Harvard Review. 
• Poetry books:
• Holding Company: Poems (2010)
• Hoops: Poems(2006) 
• Leaving Saturn: poems (2002)

What critics said about Hoops: "This book works to forge a large and spacious America, one capable of housing imagination." — Publishers Weekly 

CARL PHILLIPS

• (1959 -    )
• Best known for serving currently a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.
• Poetry books:
• Double Shadow (2011)
• Speak Low (2009)
• Quiver of Arrows: Selected Poems (2007)
• Riding Westward (2006)
• Coin of the Realm: Essays on the Art and Life of Poetry (2004)
• The Rest of Love (2004)
• Rock Harbor (2002)
• The Tether (2001)
• Pastoral (2000)
• From the Devotions (1998)
• Cortège (1995)
• In the Blood, selected and introduced by Rachel Hadas (1992)

What critics say: "Singing the music of mythology, history and philosophy, [Phillips's] poems are delicately crafted to sound like common speech even though there is nothing pedestrian about them. Because of their dexterity, they are approachable without sacrificing their loftier aspirations." — Dionisio Martinez, The Miami Herald

NATASHA TRETHEWAY

• Born in Gulfport, Mississippi (1966 -    )
• Best known for winning the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
• Poetry books:
• Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast (2010)
• Native Guard (2006)
• Bellocq's Ophelia (2002)
• Domestic Work (2000)

What critics said about Beyond Katrina: "By looking at the vast devastation with sober and poetic eyes, Tretheway has written a hauntingly beautiful book."— Publishers Weekly