Comments on: Sometimes they’re just really looooong poems…

By: rachel kann

rachel kann — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 13:19:49 +0000

oh my goodness… patricia… thank you so much. i am terribly flatterred. and also to dig into the convo at hand, three women by marge piercy is a really accessible novel by a poet. its great. in addition to the other ones mentioned in comments.
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By: John K

John K — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 20:27:44 +0000

Patricia, a few less heralded folks might include: Edouard Glissant; Reg Gibbons, an excellent poet (and my dear colleague) whose novel Sweetbitter is superb; Edouard Glissant, who’s as fine a theorist as creative writer; Ntozake Shange (well, her fiction is unheralded, but I love it); Clarence Major (one of my intellectual heroes); Amos Oz, who has a strange, wonderful novel in verse; Werewere Liking, whose work hovers between verse and prose; and Wilson Harris, one of the writers who I consider most deserving of the Nobel Prize. (Thinking of Harris immediately brings to mind Nate Mackey, who works in both genres, and Jay Wright, who is as fine a playwright as he is a poet.) Are you thinking of writing a novel? I bet it would be stunning.
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By: patricia

patricia — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 18:54:56 +0000

All on my list. Just wondering if we can discover some unheralded voices (although you made me pull Melvin Dixon down off the shelf for tonight’s nightcap…)
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By: John K.

John K. — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 14:41:58 +0000

Others who wrote or write both accomplished poetry and fiction (as well as other forms) include Langston Hughes, William Carlos Williams, Jorge Luis Borges, José Lezama Lima, Amiri Baraka, Ishmael Reed, Alice Walker, Margaret Atwood, Gayl Jones, Melvin Dixon, Paul Beatty….
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By: Tara Betts

Tara Betts — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 04:37:19 +0000

Well, you said Toni Morrison and I just picked up “She’s Gone” myself. I’ve always loved Julia Alvarez, Ana Castillo and Sandra Cisneros, Adrienne Rich and Audre Lorde myself. If Edwidge Danticat had poems, I would be giddy.
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