Introduction to Claudia Rankine

Kathy Lou Schultz’s Introduction to Claudia Rankine provides the first book-length introduction to this vitally important poet. Written for scholars, poets, students, and general readers, Schultz’s book outlines Rankine’s poetic career in all its major facets, including an analysis of Rankine’s seminal book, Citizen. Rankine’s poetry, writes Schultz, gives voice to the “unspeakable wounds” and trauma of race in America. Schultz places Rankine’s poetry in the context of the poet’s life, her works in other genres, and our challenging political moment.

KATHY LOU SCHULTZ is the author of The Afro-Modernist Epic and Literary History: Tolson, Hughes, Baraka and poetry collections including Biting Midge: Works in Prose and Some Vague Wife. She is an associate professor of English at the University of Memphis.