Winter 2021 |Brenda Marie Osbey | Vol. 4, Iss. 3
Welcome to The Fight & The Fiddle, a publication of the Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University. Each issue gives you a 360-degree view of a Black poet, including an interview, new poems, a critical essay, and a writing prompt inspired by our featured poet.
Brenda Marie Osbey is a poet, essayist, librettist and editor who works in English and French. Her seven books include All Souls: Essential Poems (Lousiana State University Press, 2015), History and Other Poems (Time Being Books, 2013) and the limited edition chapbook 1967 (William & Mary, 2018, 2019). She is also the author of a Kongo-New Orleans opera triptych, including Sultane au Grand Marais (Rites & Reason Theatre, 2011). Osbey’s edited works include features for Indiana Review, Poet Lore, War|Scapes, Illuminations and the 2016 African Poetry Book Series volume Gabriel Okara: Collected Poems, Edited and with an Introduction by Brenda Marie Osbey (APBS/University of Nebraska Press). The recipient of numerous writing and research fellowships and awards, she was most recently the 2018-2019 Emilia Galli Struppa Fellow of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. The first peer-selected poet laureate of Louisiana, Osbey is a native of New Orleans.
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- The Interview: Brenda Marie Osbey talks with editor Lauren K. Alleyne about her practices of listening, translation and research.
- Critical Essay: Renowned scholar Deborah McDowell considers Osbey’s career-long poetics of mourning and remembrance.
- Poems: Read “In Memory of Katherine Foster, Free Negress, Late, of These Parts,” “Fieldwork,” and “City of Palms and Funky Dives” by Brenda Marie Osbey.
- Writing Prompt: Listen. What is the sound of your city?
Photo by Adriana Hammond
Cover Design by Megan Hinton