Description
Book Synopsis''Essential reading'' Roger Robinson
''Hateful and hilarious, heartbroke and hellbent'' Mary Karr
''Sure, wise and devastating . . . a joy'' Caleb Azumah Nelson
''Wanda Coleman is not just wickedly wise, she is transcendent'' Washington Post
Nobody wrote about police hassle like she did. Nobody wrote about making ends meet, about the history of the slave trade or the comedy of the daily grind, with the same breathtaking originality and brio; and few writers, before or since, have had the courage to write with such honesty about their everyday experience of life - and love - in an unjust world.
This is the first ever UK publication of the poetry of Wanda Coleman: a beat-up, broke and Black woman who wrote with defiance, humour and clarity about her life on the margins, and who went overlooked by the establishment for decades - even as she was known colloquially as ''the unofficial poet laureate of Los Angeles''.
Trade Review
In this sure, wise and devastating collection, Coleman pushes against the limitations of language ... I cried many times while reading but also laughed enormously. What a joy of a book -- Caleb Azumah Nelson, author of OPEN WATER
Wanda Coleman is not just wickedly wise, she is transcendent * Washington Post *
Wanda Coleman's peerless Wicked Enchantment has words to crack you open and heal you where it counts - hateful and hilarious, heartbroke and hellbent. All honor to her name -- Mary Karr, author of THE LIARS' CLUB
Wanda Coleman gives literary voice to thoughts on survival, as a Black woman who suffers economic, racist and misogynistic attack. Essential reading for all -- Roger Robinson, author of A PORTABLE PARADISE
One of the greatest poets ever to come out of LA * New Yorker *
Coleman is master of telling unvarnished truths - about self, about the world, about personal past and our collective future * Los Angeles Times *
Her work pushes us to confront injustice with as much candor as she did * Poetry *
Her works crackle with life ... aching and meditative * Booklist *
Sassy, funny, and wickedly sharp ... there are more than a dozen poems in Hayes's astute gathering that should be widely anthologized, certainly as much as any poem by Sylvia Plath, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell, or [Frank] O'Hara ... Wicked Enchantment should help set the record straight: Coleman is a great American poet -- John Yau * Hyperallergic *
