'Essential reading' Roger Robinson 
'Hateful and hilarious, heartbroke and hellbent' Mary Karr 
'Sure, wise and devastating . . . a joy' Caleb Azumah Nelson 
'Wanda Coleman is not just wickedly wise, she is transcendent' Washington Post\nNobody wrote about police hassle like she did. Nobody wrote about making ends meet, about the history of the slave trade or the comedy of the daily grind, with the same breathtaking originality and brio; and few writers, before or since, have had the courage to write with such honesty about their everyday experience of life - and love - in an unjust world.\nThis is the first ever UK publication of the poetry of Wanda Coleman: a beat-up, broke and Black woman who wrote with defiance, humour and clarity about her life on the margins, and who went overlooked by the establishment for decades - even as she was known colloquially as 'the unofficial poet laureate of Los Angeles'.\nWicked Enchantment gathers 130 of Coleman's poems in a selection by Terrance Hayes. Funny, angry, endlessly alive and written with an immediacy and frankness that captivate, here is the essential work of a poet of fierce resistance and self-belief against the odds.

Wicked Enchantment: Selected Poems

Literature & Fiction

COLEMAN, Wanda

Poetry

Penguin

Ostinato Vamps is Wanda Coleman's first book of poetry since the demise of her longtime publisher, Black Sparrow Press. It continues and enlarges the traits that have been her hallmark for more than three decades: a fierce adherence to the truth and a language so musical one can almost hear the blues line underneath her stanzas.  Linguistically daring, lyrically breathtaking, stylistically bold, these poems both explore familiar territory and shatter stereotypes. Life is difficult, often unfair, but it belongs to the living, as Coleman reminds us in no uncertain terms. Racing between an earthy eroticism and fatalistic despair, filled with humor and tragedy, these poems are alive. They breathe. They challenge us even as they reward us for seeking the truth.

Ostinato Vamps: Poems (Pitt Poetry Series)

University of Pittsburgh Press

The burnings from which Coleman culls her work casts a glow and unique warmth that invites the reader to sit by her metaphorical hearth, to laugh and enjoy their “conversation.” The contemplative and philosophical have entered her voice as she continues to explore the conflicts and confusions that shape the aesthetic terrain of Southern California and beyond—as she continues to grapple with cultural bias, malignant domestic neglect, poverty, and the damages of racism, yet broadening her palette of social ills to include the privacies of grief, loss and transcendence. A nominee and finalist for Poet Laureate of California, she continues to reflect the ethnic scramble of Los Angeles, where she has been honored by proclamations from the city’s elected officials, including the mayor’s office, the city council and the Department of Cultural Affairs.

The World Falls Away (Pitt Poetry Series)

Mad dog black lady

This is the first book of poetry of Wanda Coleman, a freelance writer from Los Angeles who has published more than 20 books and was a 2005 finalist for California Poet Laureate.  The poems are politically aware, darkly humorous, sensual and iconoclastic, centered around the experience of life as a low-income black woman, and include themes of sexuality, anger, unhappiness, and sometimes hate and violence.   Not an easy read, but certainly an important one.

Mad Dog Black Lady

Black Sparrow Press

This is the first book of poetry of Wanda Coleman, a freelance writer from Los Angeles who has published more than 20 books and was a 2005 finalist for California Poet Laureate. The poems are politically aware, darkly humorous, sensual and iconoclastic, centered around the experience of life as a low-income black woman, and include themes of sexuality, anger, unhappiness, and sometimes hate and violence. Not an easy read, but certainly an important one.

Imagoes

Limited to 426 copies, this being one of the 200 hardcover trade editions. A collection of poems by renowned African poet Wanda Coleman. Slight shelf wear. 169+ 5 pages. quarter cloth, paper wrappers, paper spine label. 8vo..

Black Sparrow Pr

Poet Wanda Coleman provides a how-to manual, revealing some immediate ways not only to "fix a bad man hex" or "do dirty better," but to keep one's dream-light burning amid the aching rush of dark and anxious times. 
 These poems and stories reflect the daily struggles of a poet-performer whose fight to survive is "plagued by the fear of not making it" ("Trying To Get In"). Poverty is an ever-present set of "claws" to grapple with, and in Coleman's realistically-apprehended present there's no way to beat the Man at his own game: it's high noon the sheriff is an IBM executive / it shoots 120 words per secretary i reach for the white-out it's too fast for me i'm blown to blazes ("Job Hunter"). Passion and desire yield insights, also betrayals: yes i do think of you when i'm with him even laugh out loud remembering our summer's fun how it might be fun again still, something in his eyes i do not see in yours ("Four Men").

Heavy Daughter Blues: Poems and Stories 1968-1986

United States

Deals with city life, marriage, work, parents, baby sitters, racism, poverty, death, thieves, language, chance, lesbianism, childhood, and the past

Heavy Daughter Blues: Poems and Stories, 1968-1986

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by COLEMAN, Wanda. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by COLEMAN, Wanda

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by COLEMAN, Wanda. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Wicked Enchantment: Selected Poems

Ostinato Vamps: Poems (Pitt Poetry Series)

The World Falls Away (Pitt Poetry Series)

Mad Dog Black Lady

Mad dog black lady

Imagoes

Imagoes

Imagoes

Heavy Daughter Blues: Poems and Stories 1968-1986

Heavy Daughter Blues: Poems and Stories, 1968-1986