Virginia C. Fowler – författare

This book offers a comprehensive examination of the life and work of Nikki Giovanni, one of the most prolific and well-known poets to emerge during the Black Arts Movement.Nikki Giovanni: A Literary Biography focuses on one of the most widely read poets to emerge from the Black Arts Movement, providing a thorough examination of Giovanni's life and work, from her earliest volume of poetry, Black Feeling Black Talk, to the recent Bicycles. The book addresses Giovanni's preoccupation with historical themes and the past, and demonstrates the pervasiveness of music in Giovanni's poetry.Drawing on extensive interviews with Giovanni's friends and family, this book offers biographical information not previously available in other publications. It references material from Giovanni's prose works to illuminate and contextualize the analysis of her poetry, examining its highly allusive and topical nature. The book also shows the intersections of Giovanni's biography and the public history of the United States from the 1960s to the present, making it of interest to general readers as well as those studying American and African-American poetry or black feminism.

This book offers a comprehensive examination of the life and work of Nikki Giovanni, one of the most prolific and well-known poets to emerge during the Black Arts Movement.Nikki Giovanni: A Literary Biography focuses on one of the most widely read poets to emerge from the Black Arts Movement, providing a thorough examination of Giovanni's life and work, from her earliest volume of poetry, Black Feeling Black Talk, to the recent Bicycles. The book addresses Giovanni's preoccupation with historical themes and the past, and demonstrates the pervasiveness of music in Giovanni's poetry.Drawing on extensive interviews with Giovanni's friends and family, this book offers biographical information not previously available in other publications. It references material from Giovanni's prose works to illuminate and contextualize the analysis of her poetry, examining its highly allusive and topical nature. The book also shows the intersections of Giovanni's biography and the public history of the United States from the 1960s to the present, making it of interest to general readers as well as those studying American and African-American poetry or black feminism.

Out of this collection of twenty-two interviews spanning two decades rises the distinctive voice of ""the princess of black poetry."" Nikki Giovanni entered the literary world at the height of the Black Arts Movement and quickly achieved not simple fame but stardom, a phenomenon almost unprecedented for a poet. Her first two volumes of poetry, Black Feeling, Black Talks and Black Judgement, gave expression to the thoughts and feelings of a generation of young African Americans and established Giovanni, in the minds of many, as a ""revolutionary,"" even militant, poet. The image was not altogether accurate, yet it became the gauge by which her later work was judged.In these conversations the reader can follow the evolution of Giovanni's distinctive voice and the sensibility of the poet's mind. She chooses her words carefully, while giving an impression of spontaneity and even of glibness.