Black Nature (UGA)

Black Nature is the first anthology to focus on nature writing by African American poets, a genre that until now has not commonly been counted as one in which African American poets have participated. The anthology is edited by Camille T. Dungy, who selected 180 poems from 93 poets that provide unique perspectives on American social and literary history to broaden our concept of nature poetry and African American poetics.

"Dungy enlarges our understanding of the nexus between nature and culture, and introduces a 'new way of thinking about nature writing and writing by black Americans.'" —Booklist

This collection features major writers such as Phillis Wheatley, Rita Dove, Yusef Komunyakaa, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sterling Brown, Robert Hayden, Wanda Coleman, Natasha Trethewey, and Melvin B. Tolson as well as newer talents such as Douglas Kearney, Major Jackson, and Janice Harrington. Included are poets writing out of slavery, Reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement, and late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century African American poetic movements. A preview is available online at googlebooks: Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry

Camille T. Dungy is an associate professor in the Creative Writing Department at San Francisco State University. She is the author of two poetry collections, What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison and Suck on the Marrow, and has helped edit two other poetry anthologies.

About UGA
The University of Georgia Press is the only scholarly publisher within the University System of Georgia. A full member of the Association of American University Presses since 1940, the Press is also the oldest and largest book publisher in the state. With a full-time staff of 24 publishing professionals, the Press currently publishes 75-80 new books a year and has 1000 titles in print.

Black Nature
poetry collection
432 pages

related links: nature, gender/race, international, anthologies, poetry