The Letters of Audre Lorde and Pat Parker 1974-1989

£14.99

Introduction by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Edited by Julie R. Enszer

Poets Audre Lorde and Pat Parker first met in 1969; they began exchanging letters regularly five years later. Over the next fifteen years, Lorde and Parker shared ideas, advice, and confidence through the mail. They sent each other handwritten and typewritten letters and postcards often with inserted items including articles, money, and videotapes.

The Letters of Audre Lorde and Pat Parker 1974-1989 gathers this unique correspondence in which Lorde and Parker discuss their work as writers as well as the intimate details of their lives, including periods when each lived with cancer. These letters are a rare opportunity to glimpse inside the minds and friendship of two great twentieth century poets.

Introduction by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Edited by Julie R. Enszer

Poets Audre Lorde and Pat Parker first met in 1969; they began exchanging letters regularly five years later. Over the next fifteen years, Lorde and Parker shared ideas, advice, and confidence through the mail. They sent each other handwritten and typewritten letters and postcards often with inserted items including articles, money, and videotapes.

The Letters of Audre Lorde and Pat Parker 1974-1989 gathers this unique correspondence in which Lorde and Parker discuss their work as writers as well as the intimate details of their lives, including periods when each lived with cancer. These letters are a rare opportunity to glimpse inside the minds and friendship of two great twentieth century poets.

ISBN: 9781068644610
124 pages
Date published: 02/10/2024
Paperback


For Fans of Audre Lorde, Pat Parker, June Jordan, Dionne Brand

A book of witness, of friendship, and of revolution. Over a 15-year period the letters chronicle the evolution of ideas on both a singular and mass movement level between two of the most vital thinkers in race theory and resistance. The book resonates with children, demonstrations, and of course poetry. It is an extraordinary exchange, proving above all else that the personal is political - and that the political is very personal indeed. Invaluable. —Joelle Taylor

Praise for Lorde and Parker:

Her work shows us new ways to imagine the world... so many themes of Audre’s work have endured. —Renni Eddo Lodge

I came across Audre Lorde’s Zami, and I cried to think how lucky I was to have found her. She was an inspiration. —Jackie Kay

As the Black Lives Matter movement calls attention to the grave risks Black people have always faced and as poets and artists wrestle with the question of how to marry the political and the personal in their work, we have never needed Pat Parker’s work more. —Kazim Ali

The poetry of Pat Parker reaches out to us anew and shakes our consciousness—fiercely. —Cheryl Clarke

Audre Lorde (1934-1992) was the author of ten volumes of poetry and five works of prose, including Undersong: Chosen Poems Old and New, The Black Unicorn, and Zami: A New Spelling of My Name.

Pat Parker (1944-1989) was the author of five volumes of poetry, including Movement in Black, Jonestown & Other Madness, and Woman Slaughter.