Abandon Automobile: Detroit City Poetry 2001 - Paperback

by Melba Joyce Boyd (Editor), M. L. Liebler (Editor)

Do poets' surroundings shape their viewpoint and work? Abandon Automobile seeks to address this question by bringing together the work of more than one hundred of Detroit's most acclaimed and accessible poets. Writing about location as if it were a living entity, these poets visualize Detroit as a variety of complex archetypes--the city becomes a savior, a beast, a nurturing mother, a seductress, a friend, an enemy. Like the city itself, the poetry represented is diverse and the poems are by turns tender, forceful, introspective, and vital. In the introduction to the volume, Melba Joyce Boyd and M. L. Liebler show how Detroit's poetry scene has changed over the years to embrace political movements and cultural transformations. Readers will find that one doesn't need to be a Detroit native to enjoy the many themes of this anthology. The exciting range of voices represented in this collection will appeal to anyone interested in poetry, regional literature, and urban life.

Author Biography

Melba Joyce Boyd is the chair of the Department of Africana Studies at Wayne State University. She is the author of five books of poetry, including Song for Maya (Broadside Press/Detroit River Press, 1983), The Inventory of Black Roses (Past Tents Press, 1989), and Letters to Ché (Ridgeway Press, 1996), and the author of Discarded Legacy: Politics and Poetics in the Life of Frances E. W. Harper, 1825-1911 (Wayne State University Press, 1994). M. L. Liebler, a faculty member at Wayne State University and founding director of the YMCA National Writer's Voice Project of Metro Detroit, is author of several books of poetry, including Written in Rain (Tebot Bach Press, 2000), and Stripping the Adult Century Bare (Viet Nam Generation Press, 1995).