The Black Maria (Paperback)
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Staff Reviews
Aracelis Girmay was the first contemporary poet I ever fell in love with, and in her newest collection she reaffirms that love tenfold. No one's sight is more generous or precise than Girmay's, be it turned inward to the workings of her own heart or outward to the suffering of others across continents and through time. At once historical testimony, multi-level persona piece, personal excavation, and sharp social commentary, The Black Maria weaves together centuries of seemingly disparate kinds of pain, joy, loss, and love with effortless grace. The result is an undeniably vital and panoramic view of the trials and triumphs of being alive.
-- Haley
— From Haley P. Staff PicksDescription
Timely and necessary poems investigate the historical and current realities of blackness in America, elegizing and celebrating human life.
About the Author
Aracelis Girmay is the winner of a 2015 Whiting Award for Poetry. She is the author of three poetry collections: the black maria (BOA Editions, 2016); Kingdom Animalia (BOA Editions, 2011), which won the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Teeth (Curbstone, 2007). She is also the author/illustrator of the collage-based picture book changing, changing (Braziller, 2005). Most recently, Girmay's poetry and essays have been published in Granta, Black Renaissance Noire, and PEN America, among other places. She has received grants and fellowships from the Jerome, Cave Canem, and Watson foundations, as well as Civitella Ranieri and the NEA. She is on the faculty of Hampshire College's School for Interdisciplinary Arts and Drew University's low residency M.F.A. program. Originally from Santa Ana, California, she splits her time between New York and Amherst, Massachusetts.
