What the Mirror Said

The Necessity of Black Women in Poetry

AvAshley M Jones

Häftad, Engelska, 2026

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Beskrivning

When did you feel the pull of poetry? For Ashley M. Jones, the moment she knew she would be a poet was at seven years old—reciting “Harriet Tubman” by Eloise Greenfield. That moment, that poem, showed her there was a place for her in the world of literature as her full Black self. As she continued to grow as a person and a poet, becoming the first person of color and the youngest person to serve as Poet Laureate of Alabama, Jones encountered so many incredible Black women poets who showed her the possibilities.Part critical essay, part personal essay collection, What the Mirror Said traces the influence of nine Black women poets in Jones’s writing and life. She brings together historical biographical information, personal reflection, and close readings as she explores personal connections to poets from Phillis Wheatley to Patricia Smith. This book is expansive in its study, from classical metrical scansion to metaphorical explication. In offering new ways to interpret poems by important contemporary poets, What the Mirror Said makes the case for the need to study and celebrate Black women poets.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2026-04-21
Mått:140 x 210 x 10 mm
Vikt:136 g
Format:Häftad
Språk:Engelska
Serie:Poets on Poetry
Antal sidor:100
Förlag:The University of Michigan Press
ISBN:9780472040193

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Essäer inom Skönlitteratur
Litteraturvetenskap inom Skönlitteratur

Mer om författaren

Ashley M. Jones is Associate Director of the University Honors Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Founding Director of the Magic City Poetry Festival. Her most recent book of poetry is Lullaby for the Grieving (2025).

Recensioner i media

“Ashley Jones’ What the Mirror Said: The Necessity of Black Women in Poetry is a radiant call to celebrate the enduring power of Black women’s voices. Through tender and powerful essays that move between the personal and the scholarly, the ancestral and the everyday, this collection insists that poetry is not a luxury—it is survival, sanctuary, and call to action. Each essay honors the brilliance, courage, and honesty of Black women poets whose words have shaped Ms. Jones’s world—and ours. This collection of insight, gratitude, and proclamation reminds us that to read Black women’s poetry is to experience the divine and unwavering pulse of freedom.”

Innehållsförteckning

Chapter 1: What Can a Poem Do?Chapter 2: Phillis Wheatley and the Master’s Tools/Resistance in the Name of the Lord: A Radical PoeticsChapter 3: Poetry Is Life Distilled: Brooks and the Breaking of FormChapter 4: “Anything She Don’t Want To Do, She Don’t Have To”: Voice, Agency, and Blackness in the Life and Poems of Lucille CliftonChapter 5: A Haiku for Sister Sonia SanchezChapter 6: Poetry Will Never Be a Luxury: The Necessity of Authentic Expression in the Works of Audre LordeChapter 7: There Are Black People in Nature: The Poetry and Influence of Camille DungyChapter 8: The World on Fire: Patricia Smith and a New Path for Form and Political PoetryChapter 9: Rita Dove: A Love LetterBibliography