Poetry. African American Studies. BROKE ON ICE is a nonlinear narrative in verse in the voice of a homeless everyman named Broke, talking about his existence and life experiences through conversational poems, tall tales, anecdotes, episodes, and jokes, much like that of Langston Hughes's Simple. Broke is also in the tradition of Charlie Chaplin's Tramp, as well as Nicanor Parra's Christ of Elqui, Zbigniew Herbert's Mr. Cogito and Richard Pryor's Mudbone, where these everyman personas critique modern society through satire, humor, irony and pathos. As poet Kelly Norman Ellis puts it, "Broke is an unflinching well of humanity who reminds us of the wicked wink inside the blues."

Author City: HYATTSVILLE, MD USA

Tony Medina, two-time winner of the Paterson Prize, was born in the South Bronx and raised in the Throgs Neck Housing Projects. He served in the United States Army and earned a BA in English at Baruch College, CUNY, on the G.I. Bill. He has taught at Long Island University's Brooklyn campus and Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY. The author of several books for adults and young readers, his poetry, fiction, and essays appear in over forty anthologies. Medina, whose most recent books are MY OLD MAN WAS ALWAYS ON THE LAM (NYQ Books, 2011), BROKE ON ICE (Aquarius Press/Willow Books, 2011), and I and I, Bob Marley (Lee & Low Books, 2009), earned an MA and PhD in English from Binghamton University, SUNY, and is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Howard University.