Poetry in a Multimedia World
Diannely Antigua -- April 29
Good Monster by
With an equal dose of fatalism and dark wit, Antigua captures the body's capacity to cage and cradle sadness. Diannely Antigua's Good Monster grapples with the body as a site of chronic pain and trauma. Poignant and guttural, the collection "voyage[s] the land between crisis and hope," chronicling Antigua's reckoning with shame and her fallout with faith. As poems cage and cradle devastating truths--a stepfather's abusive touch, a mother's "soft harm"--the speaker's anxiety, depression, and boundless need become monstrous shadows. Here, poems dance on bars, speak in tongues, and cry in psych wards. When "God [becomes] a house [she] can't leave," language becomes the only currency left. We see the messiness of survival unfold through sestinas, a series of Sad Girl sonnets, and diary entries--an invented collage form using Antigua's personal journals. At the crux of despair, Antigua locates a resilient desire to find a love that will remain, to feel pleasure in an inhospitable body and, above all, to keep on living.
Call Number: PS3601.N56875 G66 2024ISBN: 9781556596902Publication Date: 2024
Daughters of Latin America by
"Full of heart and wisdom, Daughters of Latin America sheds a brilliant light on Latine and Caribbean women writers across time, space, languages, and genres."--World Literature Today Spanning time, styles, and traditions, a dazzling collection of essential works from 140 Latine writers, scholars, and activists from across the world--from warrior poet Audre Lorde to novelist Edwidge Danticat and performer and author Elizabeth Acevedo and artist/poet Cecilia Vicuña--gathered in one magnificent volume. Daughters of Latin America collects the intergenerational voices of Latine women across time and space, capturing the power, strength, and creativity of these visionary writers, leaders, scholars, and activists--including 24 Indigenous voices. Several authors featured are translated into English for the first time. Grammy, National Book Award, Cervantes, and Pulitzer Prize winners as well as a Nobel Laureate and the next generation of literary voices are among the stars of this essential collection, women whose work inspires and transforms us. An eclectic and inclusive time capsule spanning centuries, genres, and geographical and linguistic diversity, Daughters of Latin America is divided into 13 parts representing the 13 Mayan Moons, each cycle honoring a different theme. Within its pages are poems from U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón and celebrated Cervantes Prize-winner Dulce María Loynaz; lyric essays from New York Times bestselling author Naima Coster, Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes, and Guggenheim Fellow Maryse Condé; rousing speeches from U.S. Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, and Lencan Indigenous land and water protector Berta Caceres; and a transcendent Mazatec chant from shaman and poet María Sabina testifying to the power of language as a cure, which opens the book. More than a collection of writings, Daughters of Latin America is a resurrection of ancestral literary inheritance as well as a celebration of the rising voices encouraged and nurtured by those who came before them. In addition to those mentioned above, contributors include Elizabeth Acevedo, Julia Alvarez, Albalucia Angel, Marie Arana, Ruth Behar, Gioconda Belli, Miluska Benavides, Carmen Bouollosa, Giannina Braschi, Norma Cantú, Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Angie Cruz, Edwidge Danticat, Julia de Burgos, Lila Downs, Laura Esquivel, Conceição Evaristo, Mayra Santos Febres, Sara Gallardo, Cristina Rivera Garza, Reyna Grande, Sonia Guiñasaca, Georgina Herrera, María Hinojosa, Claudia Salazar Jimenez, Jamaica Kincaid, María Clara Sharupi Jua, Amada Libertad, Josefina López, Gabriela Mistral, Celeste Mohammed, Cherrié Moraga, Angela Morales, Nancy Morejón, Anaïs Nin, Achy Obejas, Alejandra Pizarnik, Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro, Elena Poniatowska, Laura Restrepo, Ivelisse Rodriguez, Mikeas Sánchez, Esmeralda Santiago, Rita Laura Segato, Ana María Shua, Natalia Toledo, Julia Wong, Elisabet Velasquez, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, Helena María Viramontes, and many more.
Call Number: PN6069.W65 D38 2023ISBN: 9780063052574Publication Date: 2023
Mendez, Jasminne. "Longing and Loss in the Poetry of Diannely Antigua." Chiricu, vol. 8, no. 1, fall 2024, pp. COV8+. Gale Academic OneFile, dx.doi.org/10.2979/chj.00008. Accessed 11 Feb. 2025.
"Poet and podcaster Diannely Antigua celebrates life rather than 'sinking into the pain'." UWIRE Text, 31 Oct. 2024, p. 1. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A814330445/AONE?u=mca_main&sid=ebsco&xid=51f98850. Accessed 11 Feb. 2025.
Hellerstein Lecture -- April 17
Ekua Holmes and Autumn Allen will discuss childrens' books at this year's Hellerstein Lecture.
All You Have to Do by
Now in paperback, a powerful, thought-provoking, and heartfelt look at what it takes (and takes and takes) for two Black students to succeed in prestigious academic institutions in America. In All You Have to Do, two young Black men attend prestigious schools nearly thirty years apart, yet both navigate similar forms of insidious racism. In April 1968, in the wake of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, Kevin joins a protest that shuts down his Ivy League campus . . . In September 1995, amid controversy over the Million Man March, Gibran challenges the "See No Color" hypocrisy of his prestigious New England prep school . . . As the two students, whose lives overlap in powerful ways, risk losing the opportunities their parents worked hard to provide, they move closer to discovering who they want to be instead of accepting as fact who society and family tell them they are.
Call Number: PZ7.A42715 All 2025ISBN: 9780593619063Publication Date: 2025
Corbett, E and L Phillips. “Ploughing the Field: Controversy and Censorship in US and UK YA Literature”. International Journal of Young Adult Literature, vol. 4, no. 1, 2023, p. 1-18, doi:10.24877/IJYAL.132. Interview with Autumn Allen.
Crowning Glory: a Celebration of Black Hair by
Celebrate the beauty of Black hair creations through the rhyming text and vibrant collage art of lauded Coretta Scott King Award winners Carole Boston Weatherford and Ekua Holmes. Our hair is a lioness, born to be wild. We pride ourselves on flair and style. Cornrows forming complex patterns. Shells and beads on boxy braids. A flowery 'fro that's wash and go. A regal pouf that scrapes the sky. Black hair styles embody beauty and loving ritual, culture and community, expression and strength, patience and boundless creativity. Carole Boston Weatherford and Ekua Holmes bring this array of gorgeous hair designs--and the individuals who wear them--to bold and powerful life. Readers curious to know more can find an author's note about the five Black women who made history in 2019 as title holders of five major beauty pageants, as well as a glossary describing some twenty hair styles (from Afro to updo) and other terms related to the glory of Black hair.
Call Number: PZ7.W3535 Cro 2024ISBN: 9780763697945Publication Date: 2024
Coretta: the Autobiography of Mrs. Coretta Scott King by
Celebrate the life of the extraordinary civil and human rights activist Coretta Scott King with this picture book adaptation of her critically acclaimed adult memoir. This is the autobiography of Coretta Scott King--wife of Martin Luther King, Jr.; founder of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (the King Center); architect of the MLK, Jr. legacy; and global leader in movements for civil and human rights as well as peace. Learn about how a girl born in the segregated deep south became a global leader at the forefront of the peace movement and an unforgettable champion of social change. Resilience, bravery, and joy lie at the center of this timeless story about fighting for justice against all odds.
Call Number: PZ7.K5837 Cor 2024ISBN: 9781250167101Publication Date: 2024
Black Is a Rainbow Color by
Red is a rainbow color.Green sits next to blue.Yellow, orange, violet, indigo, They are rainbow colors, too, butMy color is black . . .And there's no BLACK in rainbows.From the wheels on a bicycle to the robe on Thurgood Marshall's back, Black surrounds our lives. It is a color to simply describe some of our favorite things, but it also evokes a deeper sentiment about the incredible people who helped change the world and a community that continues to grow and survive.Stunningly illustrated by Caldecott Honoree and Coretta Scott King Award winner Ekua Holmes, Black Is a Rainbow Color is a sweeping celebration told through debut author Angela Joy's rhythmically captivating and unforgettable words.
Call Number: PZ8.3.J825 Bl 2020ISBN: 9781626726314Publication Date: 2020
Ken Liu
Ken Liu Website
The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by
Includes stories featured in Pantheon--now an animated series on AMC+ "I know this is going to sound hyperbolic, but when I'm reading Ken Liu's stories, I feel like I'm reading a once-in-a-generation talent. I'm in awe." --Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author "Captivating." --BuzzFeed "Extraordinary." --The Washington Post "Brilliant." --The Chicago Tribune With the release of The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, Ken Liu's short fiction has resonated with a generation of readers. From stories about time-traveling assassins, to Black Mirror-esque tales of cryptocurrency and internet trolling, to heartbreaking narratives of parent-child relationships, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories is a far-reaching work that explores topical themes from the present and a visionary look at humanity's future. This collection includes a selection of Liu's speculative fiction stories over the past five years--seventeen of his best--plus a new novelette. In addition, it also features an excerpt from The Veiled Throne, the third book in Liu's epic fantasy series The Dandelion Dynasty. Stories include: Ghost Days; Maxwell's Demon; The Reborn; Thoughts and Prayers; Byzantine Empathy; The Gods Will Not Be Chained; Staying Behind; Real Artists; The Gods Will Not Be Slain; Altogether Elsewhere, Vast Herds of Reindeer; The Gods Have Not Died in Vain; Memories of My Mother; Dispatches from the Cradle: The Hermit--Forty-Eight Hours in the Sea of Massachusetts; Grey Rabbit, Crimson Mare, Coal Leopard; A Chase Beyond the Storms (an excerpt from The Veiled Throne, Book 3 of the Dandelion Dynasty); The Hidden Girl; Seven Birthdays; The Message; Cutting
Call Number: [Popular] PS3612.I927 A6 2020ISBN: 9781982134044Publication Date: 2021
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by
Featured in the Netflix series Love, Death & Robots Bestselling author Ken Liu selects his multiple award-winning stories for a groundbreaking collection--including a brand-new piece exclusive to this volume. With his debut novel, The Grace of Kings, taking the literary world by storm, Ken Liu now shares his finest short fiction in The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories. This mesmerizing collection features many of Ken's award-winning and award-finalist stories, including: "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary" (Finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and Theodore Sturgeon Awards), "Mono No Aware" (Hugo Award winner), "The Waves" (Nebula Award finalist), "The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species" (Nebula and Sturgeon Award finalists), "All the Flavors" (Nebula Award finalist), "The Litigation Master and the Monkey King" (Nebula Award finalist), and the most awarded story in the genre's history, "The Paper Menagerie" (The only story to win the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards). Insightful and stunning stories that plumb the struggle against history and betrayal of relationships in pivotal moments, this collection showcases one of our greatest and original voices.
Call Number: PS3612.I927 A6 2016ISBN: 9781481424363Publication Date: 2016
The Grace of Kings by
One of the Time 100 Best Fantasy Books Of All Time Two men rebel together against tyranny--and then become rivals--in this first sweeping book of an epic fantasy series from Ken Liu, recipient of Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards. Wily, charming Kuni Garu, a bandit, and stern, fearless Mata Zyndu, the son of a deposed duke, seem like polar opposites. Yet, in the uprising against the emperor, the two quickly become the best of friends after a series of adventures fighting against vast conscripted armies, silk-draped airships, and shapeshifting gods. Once the emperor has been overthrown, however, they each find themselves the leader of separate factions--two sides with very different ideas about how the world should be run and the meaning of justice. Fans of intrigue, intimate plots, and action will find a new series to embrace in the Dandelion Dynasty.
Call Number: PS3612.I927 G73 2015ISBN: 9781481424271Publication Date: 2015
- Thoughts and Prayers in SlateShorty Story
Kevin McLellan -- April 29
Sky. Pond. Mouth by
Sky. Pond. Mouth. is a book that doesn't take much for granted--boundaries, solidity, distinctions between plants and humans, lasting companionship, faith, enduring self, health. This is a poetry of ontology, permeable and mutually dependent. Every noun is potentially non-I and I. The isolated being is the connected being and vice-versa in a constant turn-over of needing & peace-of-mind, needing & peace-of-mind. Starting with the book's title, physical and emotional qualities free-range between the animate and inanimate as though the world is written with dotted lines. Freedom, McLellan quotes A.R. Ammons, might be "identity without identity," an untethering even from untethering. In the long poem "Winterberries," as an example, "The wind made the light and an ash / tree seem one, animated yet mortal, / and then it ceased. For a moment / I thought the statue in the park / was me, not of me. (Sometimes one / needs to tell someone to go away.)" The sensual and the corporeal are geographic... It's not always comfortable. It's frankly a bit lonesome. In Sky. Pond. Mouth, a person might well be "benthic," or located at the bottom of a large water body. The climate setting is dialed to thawing solitude and to the temperature on the ocean floor. In "Clouds," a pond "stretches out" in the speaker's chest as the consequence of the loss of love, that is, of being in love for five minutes. In the forest setting of the prose poem "A Definition of Loss," trees are equipped with "mouth holes too," forming an orchestra which the poet joins as a soloist. Although this tree-and-human ensemble wouldn't be possible without his bravely different perceptions, the speaker's not certain that his fellow performers actually hear him. A theme of Sky. Pond. Mouth is patience: it's worth it. The drifting away from set forms is necessary for knowing more, knowing better, knowing how to know. Staying unbroken or holding the expected form only blocks our perceptions because, as McLellan says, DNA strands and a pair of eyes "know things despite their connectedness." In the Ecosystems section early in this book, there's a series of persona poems in which the speaker crosses over to a plant (swamp rose, pink lady's slipper, sheep laurel), a member of a marshland or renter of the unmown, not so much a flowerbed or community garden club. These plants contemplate celibacy or reject labels and judgment. Resembling illustrations of single specimens from a botanical book, they're like the poems in the book as a whole: distinct. McLellan doesn't repeat himself in this collection of prose poetry to lyric poems to longer sectioned exposition. With chiseled line breaks, intriguing meta-poetic levels, and punctuation like seed pods, these poems, if we look twice, might flourish outside the book's margin, past the grow light of the screen, even (especially) other borderlines we haven't begun to imagine. Alexandria Peary New Hampshire Poet Laureate Judge of 2024 Granite State Poetry Prize January 5, 2024
Call Number: PS3613.C5783 S59 2024ISBN: 9781735673288Publication Date: 2024
In Other Words You by
A love letter to queer desire, to language, and to loss, Kevin McLellan's latest collection spins intimacy and loss into new a strand: titanium-tough, precise and fine as spider-silk. Kevin McLellan's newest collection of poems captures an era (a lifetime?) of longing, fulfillment, and loss. Vulnerability, a thirst for beauty, and desire fuel the search for how to get beyond the truth that "we are unreliable narrators." As McLellan venerates gay male love, the " / " that haunts the lines of every poem comes to signify both our connectedness and our split-ness, naming the torsion where we live, suspended. The intermittent prose poems that each begin, "Dear You" speak to those who carry the speaker's history, from "a hate crime in the Castro" to "the N.H. valley where the worn down mountains protected?--me?" An 80s sound-track runs through these poems because "I came out when this song came out," because the HIV-AIDS crisis blew up in those years, and because these poems are as fierce and clear as the songs that flourished then. "This book traffics in the second person. These queer meditations are both directly addressed to and overheard by a beloved You--Self / Other / Reader conjoined in a dance of enjambed vocables, a syntactic pas de deux of monostiches and couplets punctuated by fragmentary prose epistles. We are reminded of the demands that the libido makes, the joys of (w)rote habits ruptured by the new, all of it backed up by an Eighties soundtrack pulsing hard out of the Castro all the way to the U.K. So fasten your seatbelts. The you you left with will not be the same you upon return."-- Timothy Liu, contest judge "Vulnerable, sexy, hopeful, and in every way human, Kevin McLellan's in other words you / is a wonder. I was brought so deeply into the intimacy, the neighborliness of the worlds McLellan opens to. The bros putting sunscreen on each other. The robin the size of a pigeon. Bodies morphing into dream bodies on endless screens. In this beautiful book the invitation of the / is also testament to a world where AIDS and so many ruptures have robbed us of generations: that devastation, that yearning for new connection. But how? How do we keep reaching out, running through the rain past the neighbors, asking someone to meet for a cheese and pickle sandwich? I loved these poems and felt like crying almost the whole time. Is this elegy? Insofar as it is also deep, deep celebration. The world goes on somehow. This book is the somehow."-- Gabrielle Calvocoressi "The astounding poems that comprise--vividly inhabit--Kevin McLellan's in other words you / waver between biblical lamentations and a contemplative sense of memorialized irony. They are a series of snap shots--an embodiment of--gay male longing and queer desire told through a series of time fractured images, song fragments, objects, and muted emotions: a remembrance of the past, vividly illuminated. McLellan vividly conjures those moments of emotional panic and sadness that jolt us from consciousness into a dream world of not just regret but a veneration, a reverence that borders on holiness. The enormous power of these poems is embedded in their quietness, their contemplation, transfiguration of the loss of the everyday."-- Michael Bronski Poetry. Hybrid. Music. LGBTQ+ Studies.
Call Number: PS3613.C5783 I56 2023ISBN: 9781944585709Publication Date: 2023
Kevin McClellan WebsiteJoel Christian Gill -- March 24
Stamped from the Beginning by
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A striking graphic novel edition of the National Book Award-winning history of how racist ideas have shaped American life--from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist. NOMINATED FOR THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD Racism has persisted throughout history--but so have antiracist efforts to dismantle it. Through deep research and a gripping narrative that illuminates the lives of five key American figures, preeminent historian Ibram X. Kendi reveals how understanding and improving the world cannot happen without identifying and facing the racist forces that shape it. In collaboration with award-winning historian and comic artist Joel Christian Gill, this stunningly illustrated graphic-novel adaptation of Dr. Kendi's groundbreaking Stamped from the Beginning explores, with vivid clarity and dimensionality, the living history of America, and how we can learn from the past to work toward a more equitable, antiracist future.
Call Number: [Popular] PN6728.8.G54 S736 2023ISBN: 9781984859433Publication Date: 2023
Robert Smalls: tales of the talented tenth by
"Joel Christian Gills shows how ordinary people fight for our collective liberation and whose stories are not often at the forefront of our historical consciousness." --Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist Do you know the story of the slave who sailed himself to freedom? For the third book in the bestselling Tales of the Talented Tenth series, Joel Christian Gill brings Robert Smalls to life by telling the true story of the enslaved African who pulled off one of the most daring and largest heists of the Civil War. Come along for the adventure as Robert earns a job working for the C.S.S. Planter, escapes to freedom, goes on to become a first-generation Black politician, and makes history by writing and leading the passage of legislation that led to the United States' first free and compulsory public school system. Tales of the Talented Tenth is a historical comic series that focuses on the adventures of amazing African Americans in action.
Call Number: PZ7.G39875 Rob 2021ISBN: 9781682750667Publication Date: 2021
Fights: one boy's triumph over violence by
Propelled into a world filled with uncertainty anddesperation, young Joel is pushed toward using violence to solve his problems byeverything and everyone around him. But fighting doesn't always yield the bestresults for a confused and sensitive kid who yearns for a better, morefulfilling life than the one he was born into, as Joel learns in a series ofbrutal conflicts that eventually lead him to question everything he has learnedabout what it truly means to fight for one's life. Fights is the visceral and deeply affecting memoirof artist/author Joel Christian Gill, chronicling his youth and coming of age asa Black child in a chaotic landscape of rough city streets and forebodingbackwoods.
Call Number: PN6727.G55 Z46 2020ISBN: 9781549303357Publication Date: 2020
Strange Fruit, Volume I by Call Number: PN6728.8.G54 S8 v.1ISBN: 9781938486296Publication Date: 2014Strange Fruit Volume I is a collection of stories from early African American history that represent the oddity of success in the face of great adversity. Each of the nine illustrated chapters chronicles an uncelebrated African American hero or event. From the adventures of lawman Bass Reeves, to Henry "Box" Brown's daring escape from slavery.
Greenwell, Amanda M. "Aesthetic Resistance: Racist Visual Tropes and the Oppositional Gaze in Joel Christian Gill’s Tales of the Talented Tenth." African American Review, vol. 53 no. 3, 2020, p. 181-200. Project MUSE, https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/afa.2020.0030.
Drawing History: PW Talks with Ibram X. Kendi and Joel Christian Gill." Publishers Weekly Online, 6 Sept. 2023. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A763753608/AONE?u=mca_main&sid=ebsco&xid=11515989. Accessed 11 Feb. 2025.
Ananda Lima
Ananda Lima Website
Craft: stories I wrote for the devil by
Strange, intimate, haunted, and hungry--Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil is an intoxicating and surreal fiction debut by award-winning author Ananda Lima. "Remarkable and memorable." --OLIVIE BLAKE * "An astounding new voice." --ERIC LaROCCA * "I love it so much." --KELLY LINK * "Trippy, eerie, wry, and always profound." --JOHN KEENE * "Incredible. Truly wondrous." --KEVIN WILSON * "Heart-wrenching and wickedly funny." --GWEN KIRBY * "Propulsive, uncanny, and expertly built." --JULIA FINE At a Halloween party in 1999, a writer slept with the devil. She sees him again and again throughout her life and she writes stories for him about things that are both impossible and true. Lima lures readers into surreal pockets of the United States and Brazil where they'll find bite-size Americans in vending machines and the ghosts of people who are not dead. Once there, she speaks to modern Brazilian-American immigrant experiences-of ambition, fear, longing, and belonging--and reveals the porousness of storytelling and of the places we call home. With humor, an exquisite imagination, and a voice praised as "singular and wise and fresh" (Cathy Park Hong), Lima joins the literary lineage of Bulgakov and Lispector and the company of writers today like Ted Chiang, Carmen Maria Machado, and Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil includes: "Rapture," "Ghost Story," "Tropicália," "Antropógaga," "Idle Hands," "Rent," "Porcelain," "Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory," and "Hasselblad." A great next read for fans of Carmen Maria Machado's Her Body and Other Parties and V. E. Schwab's The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. Recommended reading by Chicago Review of Books, Electric Literature, The Kenyon Review, and more!
Call Number: [Popular] PS3612.I4685 C73 2024ISBN: 9781250292971Publication Date: 2024
Mother/land by
Mother/land, winner of the 2020 Hudson Prize, is focused on the intersection of motherhood and immigration and its effects on a speaker' s relationship to place, others and self. It investigates the mutual and compounding complications of these two shifts in identity while examining legacy, history, ancestry, land, home, and language. The collection is heavily focused on the latter, including formal experimentation with hybridity and polyvocality, combining English and Portuguese, interrogating translation and transforming traditional repeating poetic forms. These poems from the perspective of an immigrant mother of an American child create a complex picture of the beauty, danger and parental love the speaker finds and the legacy she brings to her reluctant new motherland.
Call Number: [Popular] PS3612.I468 M68 2021ISBN: 9781625570260Publication Date: 2021
- Antropófaga in The Kenyon ReviewShort Story
- Tropicália in ApogeeShort Story
Schedule
