Poetry. African American Studies. "In his remarkable debut collection, COTTON, Derrick Harriell has created a mural in poems. The characters that inhabit this vivid tableau step into an active third dimension and allow us to witness the vicissitudes of their daily struggles, triumphs large and small, private desires. The community here is anchored by a specific Midwestern, African-American family which, in spite of both external and internal challenges, maintains its unity, however precarious at times. Death, passion, humor, mother wit, history, place, these are the colors that Harriell mixes and applies with such artistry that readers may not be so sure if they are watching a particular world or if that world is watching them. Harriell is among America's most exciting new voices in poetry"--Maurice Kilwein Guevara.

Author City: MILWAUKEE, WI USA

Derrick Harriell was born and raised in Milwaukee Wisconsin. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Chicago State University and is currently a dissertator in UW-Milwaukee's English PhD program where he also teaches Creative Writing. A former assistant poetry editor for Third World Press, Harriell is currently poetry editor for The Cream City Review. A 2009 Pushcart Nominee, Harriell's poems have appeared in various literary journals and anthologies, including The Cream City Review, REVERIE, Lamplighter Review and is forthcoming in Main Street Rag. COTTON (Aquarius Press/Willow Books) is his first collection of poems.

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