Thursday, December 30, 2010

My first book. Kinda.

I just found out that an anthology idea of mine has finally been released by Skinner House Books. Paula did a great job on this.

The idea was a book of poems on the idea of race. Not the strident stuff, or those that paint another race as merely "other," but an anthology of people who are really just trying to figure it out. We can't (and shouldn't) hide our race, gender, or other things that make us what we are, but how does racial differences affect, good and bad, how we interact with other people? The poems aren't answers to these questions, but are genuine grapplings with them.

I was very pleased when both Skinner House jumped on my idea right away, and recruited a book editor who was right on board with what I was getting at. They've done an awfully nice job on this--a great mix of new and old, known and unknown writers.

[BTW, the idea came out of a reading of Lucille Clifton's "my dream about being white" at a particularly receptive time].

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