Derrick Harriell is director of the African American Studies Program and Ottilie Schillig Associate Professor of English and African American Studies at the University of Mississippi. His previous collections of poems include Stripper in Wonderland, Cotton, and Ropes, winner of the 2014 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Poetry Book Award. Kofi Antwi is a writer of poetry, nonfiction, and fiction. He is a graduate of St. Joseph’s College MFA creative writing program, where he teaches English. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Staten Island by parents of Ghanaian descent, Antwi’s poetry has been published by Writers Guild, Agbowo, Rise Up, Gumbo Media, Kalahari Review, Breadcrumbs, and Rigorous. Antwi has a forthcoming poetry chapbook with Kattywompus Press titled Tidal Wave.
""Gives readers so much to hold onto, to grab, to gain, to celebrate, to contemplate, to continue this literary journey of Black human history."" --Dr. Mona Lisa Saloy, 2021-2023 Louisiana Poet Laureate ""There is value in reading the Black Fire This Time series, regardless of the color of your skin. If that weren't true then we've already all failed. This is a historical artifact -- an essential artistic document, encapsulating the spirit of something impossible to encapsulate; the voices of black writers from mid-20th century, to current day. How the editors managed to compile this, is an outstanding feat in its own right. That they included LGBTQ+ and feminist black voices, is credit to their universality and understanding of true diversity and cultural appropriation in white-edited collections..."" --Candice Louisa Daquin, CounterPunch