The World Falls Away

The burnings from which Coleman culls her work casts a glow and unique warmth that invites the reader to sit by her metaphorical hearth, to laugh and enjoy their “conversation.” The contemplative and philosophical have entered her voice as she continues to explore the conflicts and confusions that shape the aesthetic terrain of Southern California and beyond—as she continues to grapple with cultural bias, malignant domestic neglect, poverty, and the damages of racism, yet broadening her palette of social ills to include the privacies of grief, loss and transcendence. A nominee and finalist for Poet Laureate of California, she continues to reflect the ethnic scramble of Los Angeles, where she has been honored by proclamations from the cityÆs elected officials, including the mayorÆs office, the city council and the Department of Cultural Affairs.

More Praise

Wanda Coleman's hard-edged new collection interrogates death's nearsightedness. Mother outlives son. Feet wear out before the heart. And the truth-teller dies before truth frees her. These poems don't go gently. Elegy turns protest: 'there is a never and there is a too late.' These are sharp warnings from death's 'small mean domain,' it's not too late to heed them.

Douglas Kearney

What strikes me first about The World Falls Away is Wanda Coleman's musical inventiveness. These poems are sonically complex and technically riveting, Coleman's lyric poems buzzing with energy, constantly shifting rhythms, and surprising wordplay. But along with this musical dexterity comes a poetic mind of great subtlety. Whether Coleman meditates on her own life—her youth in LA, the heartbreaking death of her child—or, more broadly on music, history, or African American identity, she writes with clarity, wisdom, and piercing intelligence. This is an admirable book from start to finish.

Kevin Prufer

Coleman presents a series of subtle and revelatory poems in her new collection. . . . Coleman's ability to simultaneously conjure the tactile and the abstract makes her works crackle with life and inspire multiple interpretations. . . . Coleman's aching and meditative poetry gives voice to inquiries and echoes.

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