Authors Books

This book was given to me by a friend; I had her search everywhere for it. Upon a few days after receiving it, I knew her search had not been in vain. This is a marvelous book of poetry with some interesting aspects on life, love and the like.

The poetry in "Ain't I A Woman" presents a wide range of experience and emotion. This is not a book of pretty poems. It is a series of moans, cries and hurrahs from the heart. Jenny Joseph's wonderful "Warning" ("When I am an old woman I shall wear purple")suggests from page one that here will be poems with attitude. They do not disappoint. I like this book very much.

This is one of the best anthologies of poetry I've ever found. The purpose: Bring together words from women of all cultures, all ages, all corners of the world. Here are young women, old women, fat women, starving women, lives touched by peace, war, spiritual joy, physical abuse, passion, motherhood, loss. There are beautiful, haunting words here. There are cold, hard, brutal images here. If you're a woman who complains about feminists, please read this book and try to understand what women have had to go through so that you could be where you are today: free to complain. If only to have a copy of Sojourner Truth's immortal "Ain't I a Woman?" speech from 1852, this book would be worth the price. Read this book for the incredible messages here. You will be moved.

Ain't I a Woman was not a surprise to me. It is full of beautiful works of art. This book is full of voices of many different women, with different lives, different backgrounds but from their voices you can feel their strength and each voice in that book can add to your self-esteem and make you feel stronger about yourself as a women with every poem. Although some poems are not as powerful as others, their messages are still there: "I lived, I saw, I loved, I struggled, I died, but most importantly I felt, felt what life was like and from my words you might learn how it really is to be a woman". This book should be read by anyone who has time get lost in its poetry. I personally read a piece of the book everyday at work and I am glad that I made the time. There are many different writers in this book and I recommend reading different works from those authors as well.

This book obtains its title from Sojourner Truth's incomparable speech in 1851, and for the most part is brilliant and moving. My main complaint is that it focuses on the physical (sex, childbirth, etc.) so much that it could be classified as erotic poetry instead of a full exploration of womanhood. However, look for amazing cultural and chronological diversity in authors, and refreshing humor in poems like "Sho nuff." The development of the book is thematic, according to stages of life by also by subject. Series show different visions of famous women such as Jezebel, Cleopatra, and Medusa, which ends with a hilarious conversation between Medusa and Eve. The poems in this collection really strike - not everyone will like everything, but I'm sure everyone will find SOMETHING in here that really gets their attention. My personal favorite is "Witch." There are dozens of poems in here, enough to make the book seem very long, but since no poem is longer than two pages, I garantee you won't get bored.

This anthology is another one of Bloom's fantastic encyclopediac projects. He and his assistant Sam Zuba selected nine- hundred poems of two - hundred poets to represent the work of more than three - hundred years of American poetry.
While the first part of the work deals with devotional poetry Bloom's heart is with the Emersonian revolution, and its greatest poet, Whitman. The traditional categories are cast aside and the American cosmic religion goes forth into the world containing universes. This anthology too contains universes in which poets of diverse religious traditions have their say. It also contains a very strong, some might say , too strong representation of naysayers or those who are not ordinarily associated with conventional religion at all. David Gates in his 'Newsweek' review notes.
" His poets include Christians, Jews and Muslims, as well as all the whatevers; he also has American Indian songs and chants and African-American spirituals. "The Criteria of Political Correctness," he writes, "I dismiss with weary contempt." Go ahead and laugh, but I'll bet the Great Enjoyer really does enjoy it all."
Marilynn Robinson however finds that this all- encompassingness raises a certain problem.
"Given all this, Harold Bloom's introduction to American Religious Poems seems at odds with its content. He takes the view that there is a sui generis American religion which bears no relation to religion elsewhere and which is obdurately simpleminded. Yet most American poets who are held in high regard are represented here, and there is a preponderance of modern and contemporary poetry. In other words, aside from the rather perfunctory selection of early writing and a few songs and hymns that seem to have been chosen for their familiarity rather than for their interest as poetry, most of the work collected here is thoughtful and sophisticated by any standard. Much of it would seem "religious" only in a context that encouraged the reader to consider it in this light. Yet in this light it is indeed religious."
It seems to me that while Bloom might be easily open to criticism on his conception of what Religion is he cannot really be faulted for his great passion for and understanding of Poetry. In fact it is far to say Poetry is Bloom's Religion. And therefore the enthusiasm and love he brings to reading it, and this especially in regard to Whitman and Dickinson, works as pervasive spirit in the volume as a whole.
Morever there is so much fine work in this anthology each and every reader will be able to find in it poetry which sustains and inspires.

American Religious Poems is a collection of classic American religious poems by an immense variety of authors, covering all stages of America's history and spiritual legacy. Notes, an index, a source list, and an invaluable Reader's Guide complement the poems themselves, which have been carefully selected for their intergenerational appeal. A worthy cross-section of American faith through the centuries as expressed in poetic literature, from classical narrative poems to spirituals and anonymous hymns. "God": I followed and breathed in silence. / What of its task is beheld? / My feeding thee has lent all / Which broke the current thread breeze / That kept the sprout of pregnant seas / Of weathered promising call. / The filling shades he only changes, / Tells the logos, its unearned dew / Not to feed, as if from cages, / His cloak that perfumes fragrant hew; / What of all the bulging mountains, / Sordid earth and rotting clays? / If then sense is suction fountains, / That same thought is but its ways.

The Library of America is a non-profit organization aimed at preserving Americas literary heritage.

Simply stated these books are spectacular, not only in their literary content but in binding as well. You won't find a nicer book.

The content itself is a must for anyone who considers themselves "literate".

Here under one cover is a poetry lover's gold mine --over 900 poems, by over 200 poets, about all things religious. Bloom and Zuba have defined religion very broadly both in terms of faith traditions and subject matter, the skeptical and the unconventional included, the result being poems and poets that reflect the diverse and plural religious perspectives in American history, including Native American, African American, Buddhist, Sufi, Deist, Jewish, Unitarian, Protestant, Catholic and dozens more. The poems are arranged chronologically, beginning with the 1640 Bay Psalm Book (the first book printed in the colonies) and ending with Brett Foster (b. 1973) of Wheaton College. After the 900-plus poems there are 14 American Indian Songs and Chants, then 14 Spirituals and Anonymous Hymns (eg, "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel" and "Free at Last"). A reader's guide to religious terms, an name index of poets, and an index of poem titles and first lines complete the volume. I was disappointed in Bloom's "introduction," which was little more than a short, technical essay on Walt Whitman ("our prime shaman of American religion") and Emily Dickinson ("Whitman's only possible rival in American poetry"). A broader treatment would have served a general readership better. Nor is there any introduction to the poets or their poems, save their date of birth. Still, this is a literary treasure trove, and I was sorry I had to return it to the public library; between its two covers there is enough poetry for a lifetime of meditation and reflection.

You know you'll be getting a slightly idiosyncratic choice of poets and poems with gnostic Harold Bloom as the chief editor. There are poets included who would be a bit surprised to hear themselves considered "religious," so you get early Merwin only, and Mark Strand, James Merrill (spiritual, kinda, but not 'religious'). Only one poem each from Mary Oliver, Gjertrude Schnakenberg, and Jorie Graham, while several from John Ashberry. On the other hand, several poets included I've never heard of--one of the reasons I buy anthologies, to be exposed to new voices. It is a book with great surprises as well, not just limited in scope to the old predictable chestnuts. The real reason I didn't give it a five stars is the physical book itself--ridiculously wasted attempt at a slip cover (cheap, flimsy, faux marbling) and odd graphic of a fountain pen in gold on an off white cover...just not what I expect from the publisher, especially at the cost.

Angela the Upside-Down Girl is a revelation. Emily Hiestand is one of Robert Frost's true poets, "one upon whom nothing is lost." As she trains an eye of the rarest perception on the world we thought we knew, we discover the heart of light within ordinary and not-so-ordinary things. I marvel at her scope: her Weltyesque Aunt Nan Dean; her eloquent witness to the power of faith and community at Union Baptist Church; her love affair with automotive neon, which manages (as Emerson never could) to be both transcendental and funny; and, of course, there's Angela, whose gravity-defying grace can be seen as a figure for the whole book. But perhaps most engaging of all is the voice of our guide--Hiestand herself--the unifying principle through the book's many travels, wise, witty, shimmering in its clarity, a wonderful companion.

Angela the Upside-Down Girl is a revelation. Emily Hiestand is one of Robert Frost's true poets, "one upon whom nothing is lost." As she trains an eye of the rarest perception on the world we thought we knew, we discover the heart of light within ordinary and not-so-ordinary things. I marvel at her scope: her Weltyesque Aunt Nan Dean; her eloquent witness to the power of faith and community at Union Baptist Church; her love affair with automotive neon, which manages (as Emerson never could) to be both transcendental and funny; and, of course, there's Angela, whose gravity-defying grace can be seen as a figure for the whole book. But perhaps most engaging of all is the voice of our guide--Hiestand herself--the unifying principle through the book's many travels, wise, witty, shimmering in its clarity, a wonderful companion.

Thoreau lives! Emily Hiestand could take you on a trip down the most familiar street in your town and show you things you've never seen before. She has a way of noting the realities of everyday existence that simultaneously lights up their surfaces and illuminates their deeper significance. What a mind this writer has. What an imagination. --And what a way with words. I simply loved this book.

I knew Emily for a very short time when I lived in Boston. She and my sister were friends, along with a group of people whose lives centered around a triple decker on Wendell Street.

A new book from Emily is like a long letter. I get to catch up on her life and comings and goings. I always feel sheepish about not staying in touch when I'm through with it. She writes such beautiful and thoughtful things, I think. I really need to write her back.

Reading her prose is exactly like having a conversation with her. I can hear her light, sweet voice as if I'm at a reading, and can summon her laugh in my mind's ear too.

It's impossible for me to separate my acquaintance with Emily from her work, but I will say I'm always astounded with her descriptions and way with words. She is at once erudite and approachable, and her work is always informed by both these things. Being a poet, Emily brings thoughtful cadence to her essays, and very often I will read them outloud to myself.

For those of you who don't know Emily personally, you will after you read this book, and what's more, you'll want to know her better. You'll also learn that New England watersheds are not only interesting but epic in their own way, and that stories are told in the details.

Thanks Emily. I'm doing quite well and think of you often.

[An] enchanting new book of essays.... Many personal essayists today try to capture our interest by being confessional but run the risk of revealing, like clumsy strippers, what we'd really rather not see. Hiestand has taken the more unusual risk of writing about the quotidian, and produced a tour de force. "Oooouuuweee!" as her cousin Bill would say. What a good book this is. --Boston Sunday Globe Book Review

Angela the Upside-Down Girl is about how to live creatively, see life through an artist's eye. With a subversive sense of humor and a wicked ability to pierce convention, [Hiestand] takes us on her journey to discover a meaningful sense of place in a chaotic world. Her place turns out to be North Cambridge, which she describes with the freshness and originality of Joyce in Dublin...

Angela the Upside-Down Girl reveals Emily Hiestand's exceptional talents which include an artist's eye for color and form, a cu! ltural anthropologist's ability to get people to tell their stories, and a poet's facility to express what is felt but not seen. --Cambridge Chronicle

Rich, revealing, and often hilarious... This book travels between only two places...but it travels so deeply into each place, both their pasts and their presents, that you come away from it feeling enlightened and enticed, and ready to hop on the next train heading north or south. --Hope Magazine

...and I say, also, "What a good book this is!"

-Chuck Eisenhardt

you can feel the love that went into the research for this beautiful book; the stories and pictures flow so easily; i could almost see ms potter and her mr hellis puttering in a garden or floating in a boat across some breathtaking bit of water. well done.

This book was a real pleasure to read very slowly. It is a room by room description of Beatrix Potter's Hill Top farm house and includes the gardens. Beatrix started journaling about what she loved in a home from the time she was nine years old and this house is the cummulation of a life long interest in interior and exterior design theory. She fit in with the whole Arts and Crafts movement of the time. The house was deliberatly her largest artistic creation, she didn't actually live there very much. Again, it is a beautiful book and has many fasinating details about Beatrix Potter, her family and her times.

Being the big fan of Beatrox Potter, the woman and not just the author I was overjoyed to get this as a gift recently and the book is a treat for the eyes. While it has pages and pages of stunning photographs as well as her own water colours, it is the text and complete history of her farms that is awesome.

That and reading and seeing photographs of her as well as her farms and reading why she bought each property and the breeds of sheep she raised was of special interest to me. I loved seeing the inside of her farms, although I had seen the inside of a few, via the National Land Trust to whom she left her properties.

I loved the photographs of Beatrix and how she was so eccentric, kind yet firm and a woman ahead of her time. And it was nice to read that she was a true homestead style woman who had the waste not want not mentality, as well as a deep appreciation for quality and hated to see old bridges torn down for modern ones, although she was quick to make sure the stones and plants, wood and other things being discarded by some, didn't end up in some dump area but were recycled into new walls and buildings and plantings on her property.

This is a book a cottage gardener, keeper of sheep. painters, stone masons and anyone who loves working with their hands will love. As well as sincere environmentalists and organic gardeners and farmers.

A gorgeous collection of photos and information
about one of my most favorite children story writers.

What a beautiful book. Clear, inviting photos, and interesting information. A book you will enjoy reading and sharing.

Wow! This book is a godsend for getting yourself organized and creating a strategy for promoting your book. I found it to be extremely informative, providing a wealth of great tips and advice for bringing a book to your intended audience. The author's experience comes through with clarity, empathy and humor. Brava, and Thank You to Carol Hoenig! She has provided a tool I am sure I will refer to again and again as I prepare to bring my work and my audience together.

Mary Greenwood, author of award-winning How to Mediate Like a Pro: 42 Rules for Mediating Disputes and How to Negotiate Like a Pro: 41 Rules for Resolving Disputes

I love this book about planning book events. As an author of two books myself, I got a lot of great ideas about launching events both outside and in bookstores. In addition, the author gives detailed descriptions and templates that she used in her own book events. I can see why this book has won awards. All authors have to market their books and this book is a must to give authors fresh and new ideas for their PR for their own books.

Most people think that writing a book is the hardest part of being an author - it's one of the easiest! Selling the darn thing after it has been written is the toughest part. If you are an aspiring author know this: There is no book-selling fairy and publishers can't sell your work either. It's the job of the author to get his/her work into the hands of the public. Carol Hoenig's new book is the perfect guide to how it should be done. in this book you will not find fancy tricks and make-believe exercises that will make you wonder why you ever put pen to paper. Instead, you'll find great examples of how it should be done. Carol makes it clear that book signings alone will not bring you the revenue that your hard work deserves. You must be creative and learn who your audience is, catering to their likes and dislikes. If you're a newbie author this book will give you the knowledge that would take 3 years to learn. If you're a seasoned keyboard tapper you'll find out why your book is not on the best-seller list and you'll learn what to do to get it there.

As a first time author Question Of The Day - Where Truth Is The Dare, I find myself full of enthusiasm and ideas. What I needed was a foundation to work off of. Carol Hoenig provides a blueprint that any self promoting author will benefit from.

Most important for me was finding out what to prioritize. Carol takes you through every aspect of planning your book event from the ground up in an extremely user-friendly manner. Carol speaks with a unique authority both as an experienced event coordinator and an author herself. Her perspective in this area is indispensable.

Reviewed by Tyler R. Tichelaar for Reader Views (11/07)

Carol Hoenig's "The Author's Guide to Planning Book Events" is an excellent guide to the author about to be published, and seasoned authors may also find some good ideas for their own book events.

Hoenig makes it very clear in the book that an author cannot sell books unless the author is willing to promote the books. She cites many authors who are willing to sit behind a desk and quietly sign books, but she makes it clear that book signings are often not effective. Authors must entertain their audiences by having book events. As an author myself, I have found that even a book signing is going to require some public speaking skill. People will approach you and ask what your book is about, and you must be able to describe your book in a couple of sentences that grab their attention or they will walk off without buying. Hoenig tells authors not to sit behind the table but stand and talk to passers-by. She also suggests doing creative activities like bringing holiday paper and wrapping books for customers at the holiday season.

Hoenig is an excellent source for information about book events, not only because she is an author and can tell us what worked and did not work for her, but more importantly, she is the former owner of a bookstore where she had many authors come to sign books and give presentations. She has worked with everyone from bestselling authors and publishers to unknown and up-and-coming authors, and she provides many examples of what works and does not work.

The real strength of Hoenig's book is she makes it clear YOU MUST DO EVENTS if you want to sell books. She understands many writers are shy, so she makes suggestions to help them, such as finding other writer friends to interview you before an audience, or doing events with other authors, so you are not by yourself. She also suggests linking up with artists or musicians to cross promote the arts and provide your self with a new audience.

The only aspect where I wish Hoenig suggested more was in addressing authors' shyness. She provided many suggestions for book events, but I felt she needed to spend more time helping authors improve their public-speaking skills, such as providing more examples of successful speeches and ways to describe your book to make it interesting and ways to overcome shyness. She needed to address how authors can overcome shyness and improve their public persona and public-speaking skills. I am surprised she did not recommend authors go to Toastmasters or similar groups for public speaking.

Overall, I would recommend "The Author's Guide to Planning Book Events" to other authors, especially new authors. Then I would suggest they find a way to practice the activities Hoenig suggests and to get friends to come to their events and give them feedback on what was and was not successful. The bottom line: to sell books, YOU MUST DO BOOK EVENTS! And you must also figure out how to do them well.

The seven stories comprising Shaila Abdullah's Beyond the Cayenne Wall are very consistently written and virtually dripping with poignancy. Ms. Abdullah describes the personal tragedies and conundrums faced by Pakistani women living in a very repressive society. The author has created fictional scenarios based on her real experiences and those of other Pakistani women she has known in the town of Karachi. From her current residence in Austin, Texas, Shaila gives the reader a ride in the front row seat of the emotional rollercoaster reflecting the plight of many Pakistanis. The text contains numerous mentions of food items common in Pakistan, and a convenient glossary has been included in the back of the book. With its cover graphics created by the author, Beyond the Cayenne Wall presents a nice, touching, professional introduction to the author's home culture.

Although it is an exquisite little package, Cayenne Wall leaves a bit to be desired in its proofreading. The typo count is far too high to honestly earn five stars in a review. If the book had contained four-hundred pages, the comma omissions, etc., would have been acceptable, but anyone should be able to present a clean product of one-fourth that size.

Aside from the typos, Beyond the Cayenne Wall is an outstanding first book from a new author. The stories are carefully composed and memorable in style. The individual predicaments these characters find themselves in will stay with you long after you have finished reading this short book. These women were each backed into a corner by an unrelenting culture in a land of familiarity to the author. Shaila Abdullah has definitely done her homework in the accurate cultural translation of reality into fiction.

Rebeccasreads highly recommends BEYOND THE CAYENNE WALL as a beautifully written although very hard to read collection of stories that will keep you totally absorbed.

While its cover image may intimate things exotic, soft & gentle, all the stories are raw & unbridled in how they get to the core of these women's emotions & how their cultures' traditions chafe on their hearts & souls.

The descriptions of the land these women love are luminous & yet we quickly become privy to the terrible culture clashes & the despair & sheer brutality of their everyday lives.

Beyond The Cayenne Wall is the highly personal and deeply intimate collection of author Shaila Abdullah's conceptual short-stories. Abdullah presents the cultural chasm between the east and the west with her intuitive writings of individuals finding themselves despite their socially set barriers that they inspirationally overcome throughout the eye-opening stories of fate, alienation and solitude. Beyond The Cayenne Wall is a superb read for students of literature, culture and sociology because of its deftly written engagement into the world and life of the alienated foreigner.

Beyond The Cayenne Wall tells 7 short stories of women we think we've seen, but never really heard about. Shaila Abdullah introduces us to Pakistani society on a number of levels. She tells stories about urban women, rural women, pampered women, hardscrabble women, educated women. Ms. Abdullah uses simple but powerful imagery interspersed with Urdu to generate the inclusive quality of "being there". At the root of the stories are the cultural burdens women bear. Although the setting appears exclusively eastern, oddly enough, the struggles, disappointments, joys, and sorrows of these women transcend borders. Pending marriage, difficult conception, in-laws, and tradition are issues we can all relate to, and doing so through the prism of eastern culture only makes us richer for it.

I truly enjoyed this collection of short stories, and devoured them in one setting. Reading about the determination of Tannu, the fierce protectiveness of Dhool, the revelation of Minnah, the stoicism of Shiwali, the persistence and horrible discovery of Minal, the grief of Mansi, and the redemption of Nyassa brought all of this into sharp relief. In today's climate, we often see the eastern world against the backdrop of war and conflict. We never see the more mundane aspects of everyday life that fuel so much of the other. What I appreciated most was the view into everyday life that tends to be overshadowed and outright forgotten in today's political climate.

Although the women are not always successful, they are always triumphant. Even when circumstance conspires against them, and fortune turns its back, each of these women demands and receives small victories. Be it the mockery of a quickly hidden glance, the silence of hidden passion, the damning knowledge of a bully's frailty, each story illustrates that sometimes the best part of victory is-modesty. It has not been since college that I remembered reading about feminism around the world. Sometimes, it is very easy to believe that our kind of feminism is the only kind. Feminism isn't only about working outside the home and sitting in front of the classroom. Sometimes, its as much about what is still going on inside the home, and what kind of classroom. Sometimes it is about bouncing back as opposed to striking first. I think these stories make an excellent addition to any woman's library, and I heartily recommend them.

Reviewed By: Angela Hailey, Black Butterfly Review

Abdullah weaves the lives of women living in Pakistan with contrast to the Western culture. She captures the inner feelings with great depth. "Beyond the Cayenne Wall" is able to portray each woman's struggles and then find her own inner peace within the societal paramenters.

Abdullah writes well as she articulates each character and draws the reader into the realm of the woman's life.

This is a wonderful collection, full of barreling energy and vitality. A brave and precise writer, Ruland explores violence without flinching, and even locates the genuine humor sometimes latent in it. A range of styles keeps this collection fresh and witty. "Kessler Has No Lucky Pants" uses a Q & A format to marvelous effect, while the concise "The Hitman's Handbook" features a mob rub-out from several different points of view. Several stories take "genre" material--mobsters, fairy tales, Western desperadoes--and spin literature out of it. The most striking example is "Red Cap," a pitiless descent into a young girl's experience of war. The writing is inspiring; Ruland never commits a cliché.

Pamela Erens, author: The Understory

Jim Ruland is an incredible writer; his short fiction not only entertains, but provides a blueprint for how short stories really should be written. The problem is, I found it nearly impossible to dissect them and analyze them, because he trapped me; I couldn't step away to take the long view. Each of these 13 tales is compact, unique, surprising. For instance, The Previous Adventures of Popeye the Sailor is a droll take on a pop-culture icon; Red Cap also springs from literary pop--Little Red Riding Hood--but twists the heart and leaves a chill in the stomach. And A Terrible Thing in a Place Like This should be declared a classic for its elegance, visceral impact and masterful, harrowing blend of reality and dreaminess. Wonderful stuff; well worth reading.


Susan O'Neill, author: Don't Mean Nothing: Short stories of Viet Nam

Jim Ruland arises from L.A. like a new John Fante for the post-McSweeney's generation. The diverse stories here are whip-smart, weird, and Imaginative with a capital I. One bad-ass debut collection, Big Lonesome will be beating up and taking the lunch money of lesser collections for years to come. Ruland's genre-twisting genius returns us to the days when reading short stories was fun---Remember? In a book full of innovative characters and circumstances, one highlight is the brilliant title story, a Pynchon-meets-Old-West tale like none you've read before, where even a robot Indian can find love and a mad scientist can try his hand at bounty hunting. I don't know about lonesome, but this collection is big fun.

I enjoyed Big Lonesome, Jim Ruland's debut collection of short stories, immensely. His writing is clean and spare and original; his stories funny and unsettling. Among the faves: Kessler Has No Lucky Pants, a bittersweet comic tale told in interview format; the touching Night Soul Man, one of several of Ruland's stories featuring the charged interplay between man and nature; and Brains for Bengo, the most disturbing story in the bunch. To me, Ruland's writing evokes a distinctly American landscape of love and death, good luck and bad, metal and muscle, the ugly, the wild, the old and the young. He takes contemporary fiction readers out of their comfort zones, but he does it in a generous, human, seemingly effortless way, and delivers on the rewards.

After Sam Lipsyte's HomeLand, Big Lonesome is my second favorite paperback of 2005. Just when it seems language has lost its edge, Ruland comes along and fornicates the hell out of it. Most of these stories will rot your mind faster than a cloud of white phosphorous, and the rest sound great cranked to eleven. I mean it. Ruland's got esprit out the rear. He honors our founding fathers. He knows what to cut and what to kick. And he does not repeat himself, Madame, he does not.

Anthropologies are a great way to review various books - fiction and non-fiction - in a specific category. "Black Like Us" opened my mind to new authors (such as Richard Bruce Nugent) that I would have never inquired about. I suggest this anthropology to anyone who is wants to know more about LGBT African-American novelist. The best thing is that the book is divided into chronological parts. The introduction to each part - Harlem Renaissance, Contemporary Writers, etc - is a must read. You get a history lesson, excerpts and brief bios of each author and time period. A MUST READ.

The popularity of African American same gender loving (SGL) fiction in this new century owes much to the wordsmiths of the previous one hundred years. Twentieth century black lesbian, gay and bisexual authors of fiction began writing in codes as complex as underground railroad communiqué, stepped tepidly out of the closet during the Harlem Renaissance, sought Eurohomocentric inclusion as late as the early 1990's, then burst out in full proud Africentric glory in the last half dozen years prior to the new millennium.

Black Like Us charts this evolution deftly. Although its editors-college professors and editors of works that meditate the writings of Huey P. Newton, Gore Vidal and Bayard Rustin-suggest a work heavy on academics, Black Like Us goes beyond its inferred pedigree.

From the turn-of-the-twentieth century writings of color-conscious Alice Dunbar-Nelson (Paul Lawrence Dunbar's lesbian ex-wife) to the unselfconscious pride and Africentricity of major SGL contemporary celebrities E. Lynn Harris, James Earl Hardy, and Marci Blackman, we are treated to 36 fascinating biographical sketches, each followed by telling writing samples.

Richard Bruce Nugent, the most identifiably gay writer of the Harlem Renaissance, is aptly represented by an excerpt from his hauntingly beautiful "Smoke, Lilies, and Jade" (1925) while Baldwin is wisely showcased by an excerpt from "Another Country" (1962) instead of the obvious "Giovanni's Room."

Langston Hughes' 1963 short story "Blessed Assurance" is a joyful glimpse into the life of a `brilliant queer' church boy while E. Lynn Harris breaks ground and gives voice to contemporary closeted and "questioning" African American gay and bisexual men who strive for self-acceptance in an excerpt from his debut novel "Invisible Life" (1991).

The works and lives of Alice Walker, Countee Cullen, Audre Lorde, Melvin Dixon, Thomas Glave, Jewelle Gomez, and Shay Youngblood, to name a few, are tightly presented in 555 potent pages.

Although a book as ambitious as this should be applauded for its rich historical, cultural and anecdotal detail, the omission of Penny Mickelbury, noted contemporary lesbian author of 8 popular out-of-the-closet crime novels, is glaring and baffling.

Nonetheless the SGL 36 showcased here, their carefully selected literary samples, and their equally as fascinating lives and times, comprise a work both vital and entertaining.

This is a bookshelf requisite for both hetero- and homosexual appreciators of Black Literature and culture in deference or even indifferent to sexual nature. It will gather little dust.

Black Like Us is a must have for those who love history and literature--gay, straight, black, white or otherwise. The introductory essays alone are worth the price of admission. B.L.U. is an instant classic.

Black Like Us should be on every bookshelf of people of color. I was born in Harlem and raised in Brooklyn; my affinity for the Harlem Renaissance period is strong even today. Each chapter is divided from the1900�s � 2000, and they are appropriately named. A small biography is placed before the excerpt and what book it was taken from.

Devon W. Carbado sectioned the book into different time periods.During the Protest Era a quote jumped off the pages at me "To be white male in America and realize your gayness and find out your opressed is a very different thing than being oppressed all your life as a woman of color." In Harlem during the 1920�s we witnessed a cultural firecracker with books like never before. I wonder how many of those books were written from Wallace Thurman's boarding house at 136th Street called the �Niggerati Manor?� There is an American Folk saying; if you want to keep something secret from black folks put it between the covers of a book. Nowadays that is not the case. With titles like Black Like Us and The Greatest Taboo by Delroy Constantine curiosity is winning. Black Like Us makes me feel proud of the many literary giants included in this work, empowering and sending us love.

It is the stories and quotes from this book that will keep Black Like Us as a reference tool on reader's shelves for years to come. Julie Blackwomon offers an excerpt from Voyages Out 2 titled "Symbols," a short story that reflects Julie's own life. She makes a very intriguing statement, "coming out of the closet is more than just a "gay thing" It is my hope that authors like these in Black Like Us help to cease the homophobia in the gay and heterosexual African American community. I thoroughly enjoyed this treasure and how it examines literature.

In this world of the politically correct parry, it's good to know that the folks at Cleis Press do not suffer from the "me too" school of publishing. With BLU, readers are taken on an omnibus of writers that expand traditional boundaries of race and sexual preference. And it's about time. If you care about expanding your consciousness and folks who seek to shed light where there was none or little, then get a copy of BLU and get on the bus.

Suspenseful and sooo true to life...with twists and turns that artfully tell about the aftermath of a long relationship. Dudman knows how to make every word ring true. Black Olives is a literary delight, evoking images that touch the heart and provoke lifey thoughts. As with Dudman's memoirs Augusta, Gone and Expecting to Fly, I read her novel in one sitting. Need I say more? Ah yes...

Full of sadness and humor, Black Olives offers a surprising, generous ending reminding us -- women and men alike -- that we're all only human.

Who knew that those of us in middle age needed a coming-of-age novel? Martha Tod Dudman has given us exactly that. Funny, original and filled with hard-won wisdom and page-turning tension, BLACK OLIVES kept me reading all through the night. With her first novel, Dudman joins the ranks of writers who dare to tell the truth about the madness of love and lust.

Black Olives, I loved it! It is not one of those whiny relationship books, instead it is a novel for anyone who knows how hard it is to go through a break-up. It allows the reader to live through the pain of having your heart broken, while at the same time laughing with Virginia in her analysis of certain situations. The ending is very well done. It is the perfect present when you cannot think of anymore relationship advice to give a friend. I love the size of the book too and felt classy reading in public. This is a great buy. Thank you Martha Dudman, keep writing!

I happened to buy this book in the airport a few weeks ago and finished it in just a few days. I thought the premise that a woman would stow away in her former lover's car was interesting (even if a bit weird). I was certainly curious about what would happen when/if she was discovered. I will leave the ending as a surprise, but what truly surprised me was the amazing truth in the way the author describes the range of emotions you go through when a relationship ends. This was no short romance. It was long, deep, emotional, and complicated. In such a relationship, one is always trying to forgive/fix the flaws of the other person and challenged by their partner to fix their own flaws. I endured a particularly painful breakup many years ago and I believe I've never read another book that so accurately described my range of emotions..disappointment at the loss, confusion about why he didn't want to continue the relationship, rage at not being forgiven for my shortcomings, loneliness, relief in not having to work so hard to try make it work, and curiosity about his new lover. Other reviewers found the main character self-absorbed or zany. I found her human and remembered feeling everything she felt. The ending felt perfect because in the end, it is never about the other person. It's always about you and the things that loving someone teach us about ourselves. I strongly recommend this book.

Love doesn't usually end neatly or on cue. Sometimes people torture themselves over what might have been and obsess over what their former lover's life is like now....

Martha Tod Dudman's BLACK OLIVES: A NOVEL infiltrates the moment-by-moment thoughts of Virginia of Maine, who, nine months after breaking up -- on New Year's -- with David, tells us exactly how she feels when he saunters into "ye phony old grocery store," Rogerson's Emporium, where she is already poking through the aisles: "I feel as if I could cry forever. I could begin crying right here by the olives." Unprepared to simply strut up and say a casual "hello," she panics and hides herself before artlessly and conspicuously fleeing the store.

Outside, she fumes and fusses, not sure whether to escape while he's still occupied inside or stay and speak to him. After all, she was in such shock when he ended it, she didn't get to tell him what she really thought of him, did she? And nine months had only inflated that mountain of saved-up speech. Then, abruptly, her senses run for the hills: she, totally impulsively, sticks her head through the Cherokee's open window to inhale familiar David smells. And then she -- "I don't even know what I'm doing" -- opens the door and stuffs herself into the space behind the driver's seat! She covers herself with the clutter back there. Now he's coming...and she doesn't budge!

Okay then, what do you imagine about Virginia's age? Think maybe she is a twenty-something, thanks to her retro-adolescent behavior? Nope, this Jeep Cherokee stowaway is middle-aged. She and David, both divorced, began their ten-year relationship when Virginia was forty and he about fifty. Yes, even adult adults with their own homes and grown children can pull crazy stunts.

BLACK OLIVES isn't solely focused on the girlish, intrusive actions of a woman still emotionally bruised and aching from the New Year's breakup. To be sure, we follow her every move as she trespasses even more egregiously during this single, bizarre day. But, as she encroaches on her former lover's space, she minutely reviews her years with him. She remembers the blush of early, giddy closeness and then the ways they pulled away from each other.

This is a sure-handed, compulsively involving novel that wryly dissects and understands the human conditions that undermine the crusade of love. Love isn't "happily ever after" very often, and we all know it from personal heartache. Dudman just tells one "love-off-the-rails" story with more brass, more black comedy, more attention to the detritus of relationships and more gritty candor than most of us would or could. Reading BLACK OLIVES can tip us into memories of our own misfires in love, but it can also prod us to work harder to guard what we have when we have it.

4.5 stars.

If you could only own one book of poetry by African-American poets, this should be the one. It is -- on the one hand -- a legitimate scholarly collection of poetry stemming from slaves through the 1960s,and including renowned poets such as Gwendolyn Brooks and Langston Hughes. But, it is also a barebones, emotional journey into the hearts and minds of a people who have faced the most brutal oppression and adversity ever inflicted upon a people in America -- and survived to tell the tale. But anyone looking for single-minded thinking from the black `community' will not find it here. This collection shows the rich diversity of thought, experience, and insight of African-Americans, including those that push an examination of thought among Civil Rights-minded people in the 60s beyond the traditional with such poems as "What is the Color of Lonely?" This is a book one should own. I bought the library binding edition because it was the only hardcover version available at the time, Worth the extra cash for a hardcover book that will last a lifetime!

My father loved me enough to expose me to this book when I was younger. I didn't truly appreciate it until I got older and experienced more in life. This book has a variety of poetry. It is all beautiful. I highly recommend this book.

I first encountered "The Black Poets" as a college student back in the 1970's. It features a wide selection of poems by many well known Black Poets. Many are humorous, such as "I sing of Shine" others romantic, others revolutionary, but all thought provoking. I couldn't find my old copy so I repurchased another recently. This book is definitely worth owning. It will bring you pleasure whenever you pick it up.

I remember reading this book while in middle school. And, I am a 2002 high school graduate. I found this book in the library, and its very impowering - real. The poetry resonates with Mildred D. Taylors, Roll of Thunder poem. I was fascinated by the Run n*****- run master comin get you poem. Its a good book!
Lots of old great African American written poetry.

I am an author and a poet and will state that this is an excellent job by Dudley Randall. The poems in this anthology flow very well. The section on the Harlem Renaissance is very pleasing; know the struggles encountered and the determination of will to succeed, the poets during that era showed strength and courage and are well documented. The book is a history lesson in itself regarding poets of the past and present. There is a distinct contrasting of poets who are classified as folk and literary poets. The additional distinction between pre-renaissance and post-renaissance poets is also made in the book. Overall, the poems from poets in the anthology are outstanding and give a great blending of African-American History.