Lauded by luminaries such as Gwendolyn Brooks, Adrienne Rich, and Joy Harjo, among others, the work of African American lesbian poet Cheryl Clarke has spoken on behalf of the black, feminist and gay movements for more than 25 years. Her writing has earned her distinction as a contemporary black feminist icon in the tradition of June Jordan. In fact, few writers have tackled hot-button issues of race and sexuality with as much force or fearless humor as Clarke. The Days of Good Looks — her first new book of poetry in a decade — collects the author's most popular poems and essays along with an array of new unpublished writing.

The Days of Good Looks: The Prose and Poetry of Cheryl Clarke, 1980 to 2005

Literature & Fiction

Clarke, Cheryl

Poetry

Da Capo Press

<div>A new retrospective of a titan of LGBTQ literature, activism, and Black feminism Award-winning poet and essayist Cheryl Clarke's illustrious career has spanned more than four decades and culminates in Archive of Style: New and Selected Poems, a long-awaited retrospective of the indelible work of a Black feminist, community and LGBTQ activist, and educator. This collection features carefully curated poems from Narratives: Poems in the Tradition of Black Women (1982), Living as a Lesbian (1986), The Days of Good Looks: Prose and Poetry 1980-2005 (2006), By My Precise Haircut (2016), and Targets (2019). Together these works show a brilliant thinker who has profoundly impacted generations of writers and activists. Clarke's poetry and essays, centered around the Black, lesbian, feminist experience, have attracted an audience around the world. Her essays, "Lesbianism: an Act of Resistance" and "The Failure to Transform: Homophobia in the Black Community" revolutionized the thinking about lesbians of color and the struggle against homophobia. Her poetry and non-fiction have been reprinted in numerous anthologies and assigned in women and sexuality courses globally. Having published since 1977, Clarke and her work have become a foundational part of LGBTQ literature and activism. Archive of Style is a celebration and homage to one of American literature's Black Women literary warriors. &nbsp;</div>

Archive of Style: New and Selected Poems

Self-Help

Relationships

TriQuarterly

Nothing lukewarm here. Major Black poet writes variations on themes of blackness, anger, loss, lesbianism and sex.

Living As a Lesbian: Poetry

Firebrand Books

Poetry. African American Studies. LGBT Studies. LIVING AS A LESBIAN is Cheryl Clarke's paean to lesbian life. Filled with sounds from her childhood in Washington, DC, the riffs of jazz musicians, and bluesy incantations, LIVING AS A LESBIAN sings like a marimba, whispering "i am, i am in love with you." LIVING AS A LESBIAN chronicles Clarke's years of literary and political activism with anger, passion, and determination. Clarke mourns the death of Kimako Baraka, "sister of famous artist brother"; celebrates the life of Indira Gandhi; and chronicles all kinds of disasters natural and human-made. The world is large in LIVING AS A LESBIAN but also personal and intimate. These poems are closely observed and finely wrought with Clarke's characteristic charm and wit shining throughout. In 1986, LIVING AS A LESBIAN captured the vitality and volatility of the lesbian world; today, in a world both changed and unchanged, Clarke's poems continue to illuminate our lives and make new meanings for LIVING AS A LESBIAN.

Poems deal with childhood, the past, exile, art, sisters, music, identity, and school

Humid Pitch: Narrative Poetry

Poetry unearthing the untold or not-told-enough tales of Black women and lesbians.

Corridors of Nostalgia is the fifth collection of poetry by prominent outspoken African-American lesbian feminist poet Cheryl Clarke, and her first since 1993. Appropriately, the volume opens with "Living as a Lesbian Fin de Siecle," whose speaker condemns the atrocities of the late 20th century—"burning Indochine flesh." With her characteristic deprecating and self-deprecating vigor, Clarke drives the reader over the landscape of remembrances and losses: from the loss of pubic hair ("bald woman") to the loss of life in the World Trade Center disaster in New York City on September 11, 2001 ("Urban Epitaphs"). Corridors of Nostalgia is indeed a hard ride through the late 20th century, as the poet drops the anxious reader on the stoop of the early 21st. Poems like "Women in Uniform" and "A Sister’s Lament" reprise Clarke’s concern for black women who enter the formerly all-male preserves of the police and armed forces. The impact of popular culture icons on odd and ordinary life and perceptions play out in poems like "james dean longing," "Billie Holiday," and "Black Men." "The Letter" and "Please read" add to Clarke’s repertoire of poems that memorialize the period of African enslavement in the U.S. "Brooklyn," "taking head," and "reprise (for Ginsberg)" make us engage the poet’s acquiescence to sexual imagining, once again, in the realm of popular culture. Corridors is rich and wry with the varied themes of the pleasures and dangers in everyday life. Cheryl Clarke’s new volume challenges, probes, and picks at the reader. She remains committed to lesbian poetics and politics, tough and tight writing, songs of blackness, and the complicit you-I.

Corridors of Nostalgia: Poetry by Cheryl Clarke

Suspect Thoughts Pr

Experimental Love: Poetry

Cheryl Clarke is perhaps the pre-eminent African-American lesbian poet writing today. With a heady command of language and the ability to work in a variety of forms, she continues her thematic explorations of love objects and death subjects.

History & Criticism

Poetry. African American Studies. LGBT Studies. LIVING AS A LESBIAN is Cheryl Clarke's paean to lesbian life. Filled with sounds from her childhood in Washington, DC, the riffs of jazz musicians, and bluesy incantations, LIVING AS A LESBIAN sings like a marimba, whispering "i am, i am in love with you." LIVING AS A LESBIAN chronicles Clarke's years of literary and political activism with anger, passion, and determination. Clarke mourns the death of Kimako Baraka, "sister of famous artist brother," celebrates the life of Indira Gandhi, and chronicles all kinds of disasters—natural and human-made. The world is large in LIVING AS A LESBIAN but also personal and intimate. These poems are closely observed and finely wrought with Clarke's characteristic charm and wit shining throughout. In 1986, LIVING AS A LESBIAN captured the vitality and volatility of the lesbian world; today, in a world both changed and unchanged, Clarke's poems continue to illuminate our lives and make new meanings for LIVING AS A LESBIAN.

Living as a Lesbian (Sapphic Classic)

Sinister Wisdom

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Clarke, Cheryl. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Clarke, Cheryl

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Clarke, Cheryl. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Days of Good Looks: The Prose and Poetry of Cheryl Clarke, 1980 to 2005

Archive of Style: New and Selected Poems

Living As a Lesbian: Poetry

Living As a Lesbian: Poetry

Humid Pitch: Narrative Poetry

Humid Pitch: Narrative Poetry

Corridors of Nostalgia: Poetry by Cheryl Clarke

Experimental Love: Poetry

Experimental Love: Poetry

Living as a Lesbian (Sapphic Classic)