A debut collection of lyric poems interrogating the generational implications of the Great Migration to Northern California. the state's insistence that it is/was not involved in the US' projects of imperialism or chattel slavery), Hughes illuminates the intersections of history, grief, and violence. reveals in its pages that, while many things have changed over time, ultimately the question of what ""freedom"" meant and looked like for Black people in the early 20th century retains the same murkiness and contradictions for Black people today.
By:
E. Hughes
Imprint: Haymarket Books
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 228mm,
Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9798888902608
Pages: 96
Publication Date: 22 January 2025
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
BLACK WOMEN STANDING ANKLE-DEEP IN PACIFIC WATER 1 I RAN UNTIL I COULD NO LONGER AFTER A BEATING RIPPLING THROUGH THE DARK PORTRAIT OF MY FATHER TRIPTYCH RUPTURE IN MEMORY EVEN NOW NEGLECT OR BAPTISM LISTICLE I CALLED HOME IN JANUARY BECKWOURTH PASS AS HER FEET TAP THE BRASS PEDALS APORIA 2 THE ACCOUNTS OF MAMMY PLEASANT 3 HISTORIOGRAPHY MEET CUTE IN REDWOOD CITY BAD HABIT MUST HAVE LEFT ITS MARK— ROUTINE BARBERSHOP MEET CUTE IN MENLO PARK MY MOTHER AT TWENTY-ONE THE NIGHT IS AN ERUPTION OF NEBULAS HUSBAND HOME FROM THE MARINES FAMILY LORE FUNERAL IN SAN JOSE, WE SLICED TOMATOES ELEGY EVEN NOW— FORGIVENESS PANTOUM IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION OF HOME, THE ROAD OUR PAST BOWED LIKE THE BRANCHES OF A MADRONE TREE EPILOGUE BIRTHS AND DEATHS: A CHRONOLOGY NOTES
E. Hughes' poems have been published or are forthcoming in The Rumpus, Guernica, Poet Lore, Indiana Review, and Gulf Coast Magazine-among others. They are a Cave Canem fellow and have been a finalist for the 2021 Elinor Benedict Poetry Prize, longlisted for the 2021 Granum Fellowship Prize, and a semifinalist of the 2022 and 2023 92Y Discovery Contest. In 2021, they received their MFA+MA from the Litowitz Creative Writing Program at Northwestern University. Currently, Hughes is a PhD student in Philosophy at Emory University studying black aesthetics, psychoanalysis, and poststructuralism.
Reviews for Ankle-Deep in Pacific Water: Poems
""Sorting through the wreckage of personal and collective history, Ankle-Deep In Pacific Water neutralizes what might otherwise haunt and destroy. Hughes does the work of all great poets: holds the truths of love and pain, letting both live in the light."" —Kemi Alabi, author of Against Heaven ""Hughes looks with clear-eyes at human frailty and failure, asks questions that lead readers to ponder their own archives of memory. Poignant, vividly imagined, and wise, Hughes’ Ankle-Deep In Pacific Water reminds us that “we can’t dwell on the past. . .God will turn us to salt if we look back at everything we’ve lost or never had.” —Janice N. Harrington, author of Yard Show ""This is family shoved into the glaring light of memory, where a troubled lineage is laid bare in tender, audacious lyric. So many writers are terrified to trouble the past and risk unearthing themselves. That’s a terror Hughes has conquered in this pained and imperative work."" —Patricia Smith, author of Unshuttered: Poems