I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times: Poems

Taylor Byas

ISBN 10: 1593767412 / ISBN 13: 9781593767419

Published by Soft Skull August 2023, 2023

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 1176660

Bibliographic Details

• Title: I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times: Poems
• Publisher: Soft Skull August 2023
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1593767412
• ISBN 13: 9781593767419
• Binding: Trade Paperback
• Condition: Used
• Seller catalogs:
  • Poetry

About this title

Synopsis

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Winner of the Maya Angelou Book Award
Winner of the Ohioana Book Award
Winner of the CHIRBy Award for Poetry
Winner of the BCALA Literary Award

Inspired by The Wiz, this debut, full-length poetry collection celebrates South Side Chicago and a Black woman’s quest for self-discovery—one that pulls her away from the safety of home and into her power

I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times takes its inspiration and concept from the cult classic film The Wiz to explore a Black woman’s journey out of the South Side of Chicago and into adulthood. The narrative arc of The Wiz—a tumultuous departure from home, trials designed to reveal new things about the self, and the eventual return home—serves as a loose trajectory for this collection, pulling readers through an abandoned barn, a Wendy's drive-thru, a Beyoncé video, Grandma's house, Sunday service, and the corner store. At every stop, the speaker is made to confront her womanhood, her sexuality, the visibility of her body, alcoholism in her family, and various ways in which narratives are imposed on her.

Subverting monolithic ideas about the South Side of Chicago, and re-casting the city as a living, breathing entity, I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times spans sestinas, sonnets, free-verse, and erasures, all to reimagine the concept of home. Chicago isn’t just a city, but a teacher, a lingering shadow, a way of seeing the world.

About the Author

TAYLOR BYAS is a Black Chicago native currently living in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is the 1st place winner of the 2020 Poetry Super Highway, the 2020 Frontier Poetry Award for New Poets Contests, and the 2021 Adrienne Rich Poetry Prize. She is the author of the chapbooks Bloodwarm and Shutter.