Gwendolyn Brooks

The only novel published by esteemed poet Gwendolyn Brooks. Initially entitled ""American Family Brown"" the work would eventually come to symbolize some of Brooks' most provocative writing.

Maud Martha

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Pennsylvania

The classic volume by the distinguished modern poet, winner of the 1950 Pulitzer Prize, and recipient of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, showcases an esteemed artist's technical mastery, her warm humanity, and her compassionate and illuminating response to a complex world.

Selected Poems

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(One page is written on) a definitive collection of poetry and prose from one of America’s most influential poets. Spanning decades of her work, this book showcases Brooks’ sharp social insight, lyrical mastery, and deep commitment to portraying Black life and experience. A must-read for lovers of poetry, history, and powerful storytelling.

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

Illinois

Here is a necessary collection of poetry for admirers of words and treasurers of literary beauty. Spanning more than 30 years, this collection of literary masterpieces by the venerable Ms. Gwendolyn Brooks, arguably Illinois' most beloved Poet Laureate and Chicago's elder black literary stateswoman, ""Blacks"" includes all of Ms. Brooks' critically acclaimed writings. Within its covers is the groundbreaking ""Annie Allen,"" which earned her the Pulitzer Prize in 1950. There is also the sweepingly beautiful and finely crafted ""A Street in Bronzeville,"" a highly anticipated and lauded poetic treasure that spoke volumes for this great poet's love of black people, Chicago's Black community, and even the community of the world. ""Blacks"" includes a special treat, ""Maud Martha,"" Brooks' only novel.

Blacks

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Symbolising some of the author's most provocative writing, this novel captures the essence of Black life, and recognises the beauty and strength that lies within each of us.

(American Poets Project #19)

Discover the most enduring works of the legendary poet and first black author to win a Pulitzer Prize--now in one collectible volume

"If you wanted a poem," wrote Gwendolyn Brooks, "you only had to look out of a window. There was material always, walking or running, fighting or screaming or singing." From the life of Chicago's South Side she made a forceful and passionate poetry that fused Modernist aesthetics with African-American cultural tradition, a poetry that registered the life of the streets and the upheavals of the 20th century. Starting with A Street in Bronzeville (1945), her epoch-making debut volume, The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks traces the full arc of her career in all its ambitious scope and unexpected stylistic shifts.

"Her formal range," writes editor Elizabeth Alexander, "is most impressive, as she experiments with sonnets, ballads, spirituals, blues, full and off-rhymes. She is nothing short of a technical virtuoso." That technical virtuosity was matched by a restless curiosity about the life around her in all its explosive variety. By turns compassionate, angry, satiric, and psychologically penetrating, Gwendolyn Brooks' poetry retains its power to move and surprise.

About the American Poets Project
Elegantly designed in compact editions, printed on acid-free paper, and textually authoritative, the American Poets Project makes available the full range of the American poetic accomplishment, selected and introduced by today's most discerning poets and critics.

The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks

Elizabeth Alexander

Alvin Aubert

Gerald Barrax

Remica Bingham

Cyrus Cassells

Estate of Lucille Clifton

Wanda Coleman

Toi Derricotte

Rita Dove

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Cornelius Eady

Thomas Sayers Ellis

Joanne Gabbin

Nikki Giovanni

Kendra Yvette Hamilton

Terrance Hayes

Sean Hill

Langston Hughes

Jackson

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

Douglas Kearney

Yusef Komunyakaa

Mark McMorris

E. Miller

Kamilah Aisha Moon

Indigo Moor

Lenard Moore

Thylias Moss

Harryette Mullen

Gregory Pardlo

Cynthia Parker-Ohene

Carl Phillips

Stephanie Pruitt

Claudia Rankine

Tim Seibles

Evie Shockley

Patricia Smith

Jean Toomer

Natasha Trethewey

Alice Walker

Frank X. Walker

Margaret Walker

Afaa Weaver

Al Young

Kwame Alexander

Tara Betts

Arna Bontemps

Shane Book

Sterling A. Brown

Melvin Dixon

Alice Ruth Moore Dunbar-Nelson

James A. Emanuel

Jessie Redmon Fauset

Ross Gay

C. S. Giscombe

Rachel Eliza Griffiths

Myronn Hardy

Michael S. Harper

Janice N. Harrington

Robert Hayden

George Moses Horton

Ravi Howard

Amaud Jamaul Johnson

Helene Johnson

James Weldon Johnson

Patricia Spears Jones

June Jordan

Ruth Ellen Kocher

Audre. Lorde

Shara McCallum

George Marion McClellan

Claude McKay

Marilyn Nelson

G. E. Patterson

Ishmael Reed

Ed Roberson

Mona Lisa Saloy

Reginald Shepherd

Anne Spencer

Amber Flora Thomas

Melvin B. Tolson

Askia M. Touré

Wendy S. Walters

Anthony Walton

Phillis Wheatley

Albery Whitman

Sherley Anne Williams

Richard Wright

Toni Wynn

Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry

This book presents the natural world seen through the eyes of black poets. ""Black Nature"" is the first anthology to focus on nature writing by African American poets, a genre that until now has not commonly been counted as one in which African American poets have participated. Black poets have a long tradition of incorporating treatments of the natural world into their work, but it is often read as political, historical, or protest poetry - anything but nature poetry. This is particularly true when the definition of what constitutes nature writing is limited to work about the pastoral or the wild. Camille T. Dungy has selected 180 poems from 93 poets that provide unique perspectives on American social and literary history to broaden our concept of nature poetry and African American poetics. This collection features major writers, such as Phillis Wheatley, Rita Dove, Yusef Komunyakaa, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sterling Brown, Robert Hayden, Wanda Coleman, Natasha Trethewey, and Melvin B. Tolson, as well as newer talents, such as Douglas Kearney, Major Jackson, and Janice Harrington. Included are poets writing out of slavery, Reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement, and late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century African American poetic movements. ""Black Nature"" brings to the fore a neglected and vital means of considering poetry by African Americans and nature-related poetry as a whole.

Black Nature

Booker T. Washington

Charles W. Chesnutt

W. E. B. Du Bois

Lillian Smith

Erskine Caldwell

Ralph Ellison

Eudora Welty

James Baldwin

Flannery O'Connor

Haki Madhubuti

Constance Curry

Anthony Grooms

Frances E. W. Harper

Mary Burrill

Angelina Weld Grimké

Dudley Randall

Martin Luther King

Howard Sackler

Eldridge Cleaver

David Hernandez

Bebe Moore Campbell

Patricia J. Williams

Walter Mosley

Amiri Baraka

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

Florida

American Literature from Jim Crow to Reconciliation

This title offers perspectives on civil rights not found in history books. This anthology of drama, essays, fiction, and poetry presents a thoughtful, classroom-tested selection of the best literature for learning about the long civil rights movement. Unique in its focus on creative writing, the volume also ranges beyond a familiar 1954-1968 chronology to include works from the 1890s to the present. The civil rights movement was a complex, ongoing process of defining national values such as freedom, justice, and equality. In ways that historical documents cannot, these collected writings show how Americans negotiated this process - politically, philosophically, emotionally, spiritually, and creatively.Gathered here are works by some of the most influential writers to engage issues of race and social justice in America, including James Baldwin, Flannery O'Connor, Amiri Baraka, and Nikki Giovanni. The volume begins with works from the post-Reconstruction period when racial segregation became legally sanctioned and institutionalized. This section, titled 'The Rise of Jim Crow,' spans the period from Frances E. W. Harper's Iola Leroy to Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. In the second section, 'The Fall of Jim Crow,' Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'Letter from Birmingham Jail' and a chapter from ""The Autobiography of Malcolm X"" appear alongside poems by Robert Hayden, June Jordan, and others who responded to these key figures and to the events of the time.'Reflections and Continuing Struggles,' the last section, includes works by such current authors as Rita Dove, Anthony Grooms, and Patricia J. Williams. These diverse perspectives on the struggle for civil rights can promote the kinds of conversations that we, as a nation, still need to initiate.

The Civil Rights Reader

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Here is a necessary collection of poetry for admirers of words and treasurers of literary beauty. Spanning over 30 years, this collection of literary masterpieces by the venerable Ms. Gwendolyn Brooks, arguably Illinois' most beloved Poet Laureate and Chicago's elder Black literary stateswoman, "Blacks" includes all of Ms. Brooks' critically acclaimed writings. Within its covers is the groundbreaking "Annie Allen," which earned her the Pulitzer Prize in 1950, making her the first Black to achieve that honor. There is also the sweepingly beautiful and finely crafted "A Street in Bronzeville," a highly anticipated and lauded poetic treasure that spoke volumes for this great poet's love of Black people, Chicago's Black community, and even the community of the world. "Blacks" includes a special treat, "Maud Martha," Brooks' only novel.

Virginia

Bronzeville Boys and Girls

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Originally published in 1956, these poems celebrate the joy, beauty, imagination, and freedom of childhood. Acclaimed author Gwendolyn Brooks reminds us that whether we live in the Bronzeville section of Chicago or any other neighborhood in the world, the rich emotions of childhood are universal--we are all Bronzeville boys and girls. This beautiful reillustrated edition features Faith Ringgold's vibrant artwork.

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Maud Martha

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The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks

Elizabeth Alexander

Black Nature

Booker T. Washington

The Civil Rights Reader

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Bronzeville Boys and Girls