Black Issues Book Review articles from March 2006

Black Issues Book Review archives from March 2006

Power and poetry.(from the editor-in-chief)
March 1, 2006... Feedback on our January-February 2006 cover story "Large and in Charge, the Powers Behind Black Books" was laudatory, appreciative and also troublesome. The thanks were more emotional and complaints louder because black professionals have so...

The well of creativity.(executive editor's view)
March 1, 2006... While readers of serious black literature might fear for its future with competition from other leisure activities and the general decline in time spent reading, many signs point to a long and secure reign for its influence in the world of...

Large and in charge: "historic article".(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... Congratulations and thank you Black Issues Book Review for writing about our African American publishing industry for seven notable years; and thanks to the publishers, editors and staff of BIBR, along with Carolyn Hardnett Robinson for...

Comic relief.(between the lines: the inside scoop on what's happening in the publishing industry)(Eric Jerome Dickey)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... Eric Jerome Dickey has a new outlet for his literary talents: an X-Men series for Marvel Comics. Marvel launched the six-issue, limited series of Storm, illustrated by David Yardin, in February. It is suggested for teenage and older readers....

Third Girl film deal.(between the lines: the inside scoop on what's happening in the publishing industry)(Martha Southgate, Washington Square Films )(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... Martha Southgate's new novel Third Girl From the Left (Houghton Mifflin, September 2005) will move quickly to the medium of film. Washington Square Films (WSF) optioned it and hired the talented screenwriter Cauleen Smith, who did the...

Back in the game: Gulf Coast booksellers find ways to press on.(market buzz)
March 1, 2006... When Hurricane Katrina assaulted the Gulf Coast, devastating lives and livelihoods, it did not spare the region's bookselling community. David Walker, special projects director of the American Booksellers Association (ABA), a nonprofit...

Script for success: Michael Ajakwe's Pipedream press publishes works by him and other playwrights.(self-publishing)(Interview)
March 1, 2006... FRESHLY PARKED IN A RESTAURANT booth, Michael Ajakwe Jr. flips his driving glasses up on his head. The Nigerian American has a face reminiscent of a rich African mask that comes to life and smiles at you. He looks over a menu of desserts and...

Off the page: S. Epatha Merkerson goes from buying books for her own pleasure to buying rights to film Leaving Cecil Street.(Interview)(Cover story)
March 1, 2006... When S. Epatha Merkerson moved to New York City in 1978, her theater gigs often kept her on the road. "Every city I went to, I would look for the black bookstore," she says. "And I would buy books." She's not on the road as much now, thanks to...

The in-box: noteworthy titles on our Web site.
March 1, 2006... EYE American Icons: From Madison to Manhattan, the Art of Benny Anderson 1948-1997 by J. Richard Gruber Morris Museum of Art/University Press of Mississippi, July 2005 $45.95, ISBN 1-890-02101-6 Buy Golly! The History of Black...

In other voices: the millennial poets and personae.(POINTS OF VIEW)(Tyehimba Jess, poet)(Interview)
March 1, 2006... WHEN I ASKED TYEHIMBA JESS, AUTHOR OF THE RECENTLY published collection Leadbelly (Verse Press, 2005), why he wrote his poems in the voice of the titular blues legend, he told me he felt a kinship to the musician. Writing the poems provide a...

The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2006... The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry Edited by Arnold Rampersad and Hilary Herbold Oxford University Press, October 2005 $32.50, ISBN 0-195-12563-0 The business of canon building is serious. A kind of tightrope walk where the...

The Cachoeira Tales and Other Poems.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2006... The Cachoeira Tales and Other Poems by Marilyn Nelson Louisiana State University Press, June 2005 $26.95, ISBN 0-807-13063-X In The Cachoeira Tales, Marilyn Nelson creates a lyrical travel narrative through the African Diaspora and...

American Sublime.(Book review)
March 1, 2006... American Sublime by Elizabeth Alexander Graywolf Press, October 2005 $14, ISBN 1-555-97432-5 The title of Elizabeth Alexander's fourth book of poetry is as much a description of the book's intentions as it is of the quality of the work....

Eye of Water.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2006... Eye of Water by Amber Flora Thomas University of Pittsburgh Press October 2005, $14, ISBN 0-822-95893-7 In a rich debut collection, Thomas, winner of the 2004 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, pays attention to the ordinary rhythms of living and...

Native Guard.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2006... Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey Houghton Mifflin, March 2006 $22, ISBN 0-618-60463-4 In Trethewey's third collection, the dead take center stage. From the empty spaces her deceased mother leaves to the empty spaces of forgotten black...

Zaatar Diva.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2006... Zaatar Diva by Suheir Hammad Cypher Books, February 2006 $12, ISBN 1-892-49467-1 The debut release in the Cypher Books series (an imprint of Rattapallax Press) is Hammad's first collection in a decade. Included is a 21-track CD, giving...

A Long Movie of Shadows.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2006... A Long Movie of Shadows by Lamont Steptoe Whirlwind Press, December 2004 $14.95, ISBN 0-922-82714-1 The first thing that becomes evident is Steptoe's thematic range and his poetic style, which reaches from the Black Arts Movement to the...

Singular notes: self-published writers share the limelight.
March 1, 2006... Publishing, unfortunately, can be considered a competitive sport. Far more writers than publishing houses are in the world. As an editor for Black Issues Book Review, two publishers and a journal, I can personally attest to the hundreds of...

Rhythm and rhyme: a few selections to help youngsters celebrate poetry month.(The Entrance Place of Wonders: Poems of the Harlem Renaissance, Jimi and Me, Jazz A B Z: An A to Z Collection of Jazz Portraits, Poetry for Young People: Langston Hughes, Visiting Langston, Hush, Little Baby, The Six Fools: Collected by Zora Neale Hurston)(Book review)(Children's Review)
March 1, 2006... The Entrance Place of Wonders: Poems of the Harlem Renaissance Selected by Daphne Muse illustrated by Charlotte Riley-Webb Abrams, February 2006 $16.95, ISBN 0-810-95997-6 Ages 5-9 This collection features the works of Countee Cullen,...

So You Call Yourself a Man.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2006... So You Call Yourself a Man by Cad Weber Dafina Books/Kensington, December 2005 $24, ISBN 0-758-20718-2 This author and publisher has jumped back into the literary scene with another one of his trademark gritty urban-based novels about love,...

Candy Licker.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2006... Candy Licker by Noire One World/Ballantine, December 2005 $13.95, ISBN 0-345-48647-1 Candy Raye Montana has been through situations that could turn some teenagers to life of self-destruction. Luckily, she meets Hurricane, a major playa in...

Knockin' Boots.(Book review)(Brief review)
March 1, 2006... Knockin' Boots by Tracy Price-Thompson One World/Ballantine, November 2005 $12.95, ISBN 0-345-47723-5 Kevin and Emile's upbringing as foster children continues to affect them. When wild, raunchy sex gets out of control and HIV/MDS...

The Other Side of the Game.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2006... The Other Side of the Game by Anita Doreen Diggs Dafina Books/Kensington, October 2005 $14, ISBN 0-758-21049-3 Asha and Saundra are siblings with very different lifestyles. Asha likes to take men for all they are worth. Saundra, on the...

Pink.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2006... Pink by Marilynn Griffith Revell, February 2006 $12.99, ISBN 0-800-73040-2 Raya and her four multicultural friends discover romance, camaraderie and drama. They collaborate on the creation of a wedding dress--with the hope of...

Channeling Shakespeare: Prospero's daughter turns a classic plot inside out to examine questions about colonization, race and rape.(Book review)
March 1, 2006... Prospero's Daughter by Elizabeth Nunez Ballantine Books, March 2006 $24.95, ISBN 0-345-45535-5 IMAGINE ME, A 14-YEAR-OLD BROWN-skinned girl, fixing on the island of Trinidad, a colony of England. I am lucky enough to have won a scholarship...

A Killing in This Town.(Book review)
March 1, 2006... A Killing in This Town by Olympia Vernon Grove Press, February 2006 $22, ISBN 0-802-11813-5 Olympia Vernon's third novel addresses a violent and destructive time in African American history. Set in a rural, segregated Southern town, A...

Dancing in the Dark.(Book review)
March 1, 2006... * Dancing in the Dark by Caryl Phillips Knopf, September 2005 $23.95, ISBN 1-400-04396-4 In this follow-up to his award-winning novel A Distant Shore, Caryl Phillips shows once again the depth of insight into personal and societal...

Prospero's Daughter.(Book review)
March 1, 2006... * Prospero's Daughter by Elizabeth Nunez Ballantine Books, March 2006 $24.95, ISBN 0-345-45535-5 Interracial love. Violence. Black-power politics. White magic. Unspeakable secrets. This combustible mix plays out in Elizabeth Nunez's...

The Wave.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2006... The Wave by Walter Mosley Warner Books, January 2006 $22.95, ISBN: 0446533637 One of our pre-eminent writers, best known for his Easy Rawlins mysteries, makes another trip into the world of science. Errol Porter is an out-of-work techie...

Mozart and Leadbelly: Stories and Essays.(Book review)
March 1, 2006... Mozart and Leadbelly: Stories and Essays by Ernest J. Gaines Knopf, October 2005 $22.95, ISBN 1-400-04472-3 Ernest Gaines may be retired, but he appears hardly tired of writing and creating memorable characters and stories that will last a...

YellowBlack: The First Twenty-One Years of a Poet's Life: A Memoir.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2006... YellowBlack: The First Twenty-One Years of a Poet's Life: A Memoir by Haki R. Madhubuti Third World Press, October 2005 $22.95, ISBN 0-883-78275-8 It comes as no surprise that Haki R. Madhubuti's memoir is a delightful mixture of prose and...

The New Basic Black: Home Training for Modern Times.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2006... The New Basic Black: Home Training for Modern Times by Karen Grigsby Bates and Karen Elyse Hudson Doubleday, December 2005 $29.95, ISBN 0-385-51626-6 Just in time for the New Year, Doubleday has published a revised edition of the popular...

I'm Every Woman: A Black Woman Remixes Stories of Marriage, Motherhood, and Work.(Book review)
March 1, 2006... I'm Every Woman: A Black Woman Remixes Stories of Marriage, Motherhood, and Work by Lonnae O'Neal Parker Amistad/HarperCollins, November 2005, $24.95, ISBN 0-060-59292-3 There's a lot of chatter in mainstream American popular discourse...

Hung: A Meditation on the Measure of Black Men in America.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2006... Hung: A Meditation on the Measure of Black Men in America by Scott Poulson-Bryant Doubleday, October 2005 $22.95, ISBN 0-385-51002-0 Hung is an entertaining book devoted to the myth, stereotypes, and hype surrounding black men and their...

Cycle of Life: August Wilson: playwright April 27, 1945-October 2, 2005.(Obituary)
March 1, 2006... THE UNTIMELY DEATH OF AUGUST Wilson, at the age of 60, is a tragic loss to the American theater. While no one can fully share his family's sorrow, August Wilson, born Frederick August Kittel, will be sorely missed by black artists everywhere....