Blues Poems by Kevin Young
In this gorgeous hardcover anthology--the first devoted exclusively to blues poems--a wide array of poets pay tribute to the form of the blues and offer testimony to its lasting power. Edited by award-winning poet Kevin Young.Born in African American work songs, field hollers, and the powerful legacy of the spirituals, the blues traveled the country from the Mississippi delta to "Sweet Home Chicago," forming the backbone of American music.
The blues have left an indelible mark on the work of a diverse range of poets: from "The Weary Blues" by Langston Hughes and "Funeral Blues" by W. H. Auden, to "Blues on Yellow" by Marilyn Chin and "Reservation Blues" by Sherman Alexie. Here are blues-influenced and blues-inflected poems from, among others, Gwendolyn Brooks, Allen Ginsberg, June Jordan, Richard Wright, Nikki Giovanni, Charles Wright, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Cornelius Eady. And here, too, are classic song lyrics--poems in their own right--from Bessie Smith, Robert Johnson, Ma Rainey, and Muddy Waters.
The rich emotional palette of the blues is fully represented here in verse that pays tribute to the heart and humor of the music, and in poems that swing with its history and hard-bitten hope.
Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket.
Kevin Young's first book, Most Way Home, was chosen for the National Poetry Series and received the Ploughshares Zacharis First Book Award. His second collection of poems, To Repel Ghosts, a double album based on the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat's work, was a finalist for the Academy of American Poets' James Laughlin Prize. Young's work has appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Kenyon Review, and Callaloo. He is the editor of the anthologies Giant Steps: The Next Generation of African American Writers and Blues Poetry, both published by Everyman's Library Pocket Poet. Young is the Ruth Lilly Professor of Poetry at Indiana University and a former Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford University.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780375414589 |
| ISBN 10 | 0375414584 |
| Title | Blues Poems |
| Author | Kevin Young |
| Series | Everyman's Library Pocket Poets Series |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Random House USA Inc |
| Year published | 2003-09-02 |
| Number of pages | 256 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |