Bearden's Odyssey: Poets Respond to the Art of Romare Bearden

Editors: Kwame Dawes and Matthew Shenoda

Publisher: TriQuarterly (2017)

Contributors: Chris Abani, Elizabeth Alexander, Cyrus Cassells, Fred D'Aguiar, Kwame Dawes, Toi Derricotte, Rita Dove, Camille T. Dungy, Vievee Francis, Nikki Giovanni, Aracelis Girmay, Terrance Hayes, Major Jackson, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. A. Van Jordan, Douglas Kearney, Yusef Komunyakaa, Nathaniel Mackey, Adrian Matejka, E. Ethelbert Miller, Marilyn Nelson, Geoffrey Philip, Ishmael Reed, Ed Roberson, Tim Seibles, Matthew Shenoda, Evie Shockley, Patricia Smith, Tracy K. Smith, Sharan Strange, Natasha Tretheway, Quincy Troupe, Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, Afaa Michael Weaver, and Crystal Ann Williams

Borrowing from Romare Bearden’s aesthetic palette and inspired by his Odysseus series, Bearden’s Odyssey gathers, for the first time, poems from thirty-five of the most revered African diaspora poets in the United States. Poetic echoes come forth in themes of inspiration with historical intersections of one of the greatest visual artists of the twentieth century.
 
The award-winning editors, Kwame Dawes and Matthew Shenoda, assemble an esteemed literary congregation, with original poems by Chris Abani, Rita Dove, Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, Ed Roberson, Aracelis Girmay, Yusef Komunyakaa, and more. With a powerful foreword by Nobel laureate Derek Walcott and stunning visual reproductions of select Bearden masterpieces, this anthology fuses art and literature, standing as a testament to Romare Bearden’s power and influence in the contemporary artistic world.