Body of Life: Poems

by Elizabeth Alexander

Tia Chucha Press is proud to reprint Elizabeth Alexander’s “Body of Life,” first published in 1996 and a collection that stands as a testament to the well-wrought line with the deeply threaded elements of history, ancestors, jazz, and family that mark the rare power inherent in Ms. Alexander’s work. Her selection as the Inaugural Poet for 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama is well deserved—she is one of the most fresh and vital voices in American literature today.

Genres: Poetry

85 pages, Paperback

First published January 13, 1997

About the author

Elizabeth Alexander is a Quantrell Award-winning American poet, essayist, playwright, university professor, and scholar of African-American literature and culture. She teaches English language/literature, African-American literature, and gender studies at Yale University. Alexander was a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard during the 2007-08 academic year.

Alexander's poems, short stories, and critical writings have been widely published in such journals and periodicals as The Paris Review, American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, The Village Voice, The Women's Review of Books, and The Washington Post. Her play Diva Studies, which was performed at Yale's School of Drama, garnered her a National Endowment for the Arts creative writing fellowship as well as an Illinois Arts Council award.

On December 17th, 2008 it was announced that she will compose a poem which she shall recite at the Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama in January 2009.

Reviews

[Terrence Davis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Quite boring, one of the worst books of poetry I have read.

[Janée Baugher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Important collection of poems by a celebrated American writer. Some ekphrastic poems (my favorite), some historical speaker/persona poems, and many poems on the plight of being a minority in this country (both past and present issues).

[Aberjhani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please read my full review of BODY OF LIFE at the following url:
http://authorsden.com/visit/viewartic...

[Sydney]

Beautiful and educational. Read this for a Creative Writing class I am currently attending.