African-American Poets

From School Library Journal
Grade 7-12. Ten African Americans are highlighted in these essays. Each 7-to-10 page sketch contains basic biographical information about the poet, showing how the African-American experience affected their work, along with a portrait (usually a photograph) and one of their poems. The writers range from former slave Phillis Wheatley to contemporary authors such as Maya Angelou, Eloise Greenfield, and Rita Dove. Also included are Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Nikki Giovanni. The clear, focused writing makes this a solid choice for reports, especially in multicultural units.?Melissa Hudak, North Suburban District Library, Roscoe, ILCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 5^-10. From Phyllis Wheatley to Amiri Baraka and Rita Dove, this readable title in the Collective Biography series discusses the life and works of 10 leading African American poets. Each chapter begins with a full-page black-and-white photo of the writer and ends with a poem, quoted in full. In about 10 pages for each writer, Strickland discusses the person and the poetry as well as the literary tradition. A final bibliography includes works by and about each poet. Many of the chapter notes cite the standard biographical reference sources, but for report writers and for readers just discovering the pleasure of the poetry, this accessible collection, with its bright cover and direct style, is a good place to start. Hazel Rochman

From Kirkus Reviews
This solid and sensible collective biography of ten African-American poets, from Phillis Wheatley to Rita Dove, is nicely done indeed. Librarians, teachers, and students will welcome this collection, with essays that are just the right length for citing in reports. Each essay outlines the life and covers the work of the poet, and each ends, appropriately, with a complete poem. Besides Wheatley and Dove, Strickland (Poems that Sing to You, 1993, etc.) includes Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Amiri Baraka (whose adopted name is translated, erroneously, as ``blessed'' for Ameer and ``prince'' for Baraka-- a simple reversal of the meanings), Haki R. Madhubuti, Nikki Giovanni, Maya Angelou, and Eloise Greenfield. The abbreviated format and concentration on the poets' words rather than on their lives occasionally leads to an oversimplification of their influences or of the difficulties they suffered, but this is still a great collection-builder. (b&w photos, notes, bibliography, index) (Biography. 11+) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Card catalog description
Profiles the lives and work of ten African American poets: Gwendolyn Brooks, Haki R. Madhubuti, Rita Dove, Eloise Greenfield, Langston Hughes, Imamu Amiri Baraka, Maya Angelou, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Nikki Giovanni.


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