Amy Lemmon

Amy Lemmon is the author of the poetry collections Fine Motor (Sow’s Ear Poetry Press 2008) and Saint Nobody (Red Hen 2009). Her poems and essays have appeared in Rolling Stone, New Letters, Prairie Schooner, Verse, Barrow Street, Court Green, the Journal, Marginalia, and many other magazines and anthologies. A Pushcart Prize nominee, she has contributed articles to the Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Poets and Poetry and the Facts on File Companion to Twentieth-Century British Poetry. ABBA: The Poems, a chapbook Amy wrote collaboratively with Denise Duhamel, is forthcoming from Coconut Books, and selections appear in several literary magazines and online at Lafovea.org.

Amy holds a PhD in English and creative writing from the University of Cincinnati and is the recipient of scholarships from the Vermont Studio Center, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, West Chester Poetry Conference, and Antioch Writers’ Workshop. Awards include the Elliston Poetry Prize, the Ruth Cable Poetry Prize, and the Ruskin Art Club Poetry Prize. An associate professor and assistant chair of the English and Speech Department at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, she lives in Astoria, Queens, with her two children. Visit her blog, Saint Nobody.


All Books

Saint Nobody

Amy Lemmon

Publication Date: February 15, 2009

$18.95 Tradepaper

ISBN: 978-1597091428

Description:

Amy Lemmon’s stunning and heart-wrenching debut, Saint Nobody, offers us a profound meditation on the body, on the tribulations and the hard-found joys of incarnation. Lemmon does not shy away from a world where “vestigial angel-parts ache to emerge” and where there doesn’t appear to be a “speck of God.” This piercing meditation takes the problem of the body, and the problem of the body in a world that often seems God-less, head-on, without flinching, and yet delivers us truths and beauty we would never have imagined. Lemmon knows that we can’t count on the intercession of an absent saint, and she refuses easy solace. Instead, she probes deeply into the pain, into the conflicting emotions of childbirth, into the birth of a child with Down Syndrome—which is probably the most extraordinary poem written on that subject—to understand the life of our body here, the body in which “pain is sharpest where my wings would be.” This is a world of urine samples, “errant” chromosomes, lost kisses, first bleedings, chaotic cells, and scars, where the blood seems ours alone, and where the words are the only bread we have that may deliver us. In the bread of her words, Lemmon has given us a profound sacrament.

News

Latino Stories Interviews David Campos, author of AMERICAN QUASAR

This interview with David Campos is part of a Latino Stories series with Latinx authors. David Campos, a CantoMundo Fellow, is the author of American Quasar (Red Hen Press 2021) and Furious Dusk (University of Notre Dame 2015) which won the 2014 Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize.

Kristen Millares Young & Khalisa Rae featured in PANK Magazine’s latest issue with new pieces!

PANK Magazine’s just released their 16th issue, which includes a Non Fiction piece titled Fathers Day written by Kristen Millares Young and poetry by Khalisa Rae titled Livestock. Kristen Millares Young is the author of the novel Subduction, a Paris Review staff pick and a finalist for two International Latino Book Awards (best novel and best first novel). Khalisa Rae is […]

David Campos & Maceo Montoya (AMERICAN QUASAR) interviewed in the American Book Review!

Early twentieth-century maverick creator, Guillaume Apollinaire, famously declared, “l’esprit nouveau et les poetes.” With extraordinary collaborations between visual crafters and wordsmiths—Picasso and Max Jacob (Saint Matorel [1911]), Ginsburg and Francesco Clemente (The White Shroud [1986]), Norma Cantú and Marta Sánchez (Transcendental Train Yard [2015]), for instance—I emphatically declare: the vitality of the poetic-arts is Latinx hybrid modal co-creations. David Campos […]

Khalisa Rae featured on Lit Hub!

The Southern writing tradition has always been the fertile ground for fire. Dry weeds exist, yet the soil is rich. For me, the South is a living, breathing thing: a ghost, a bay window, a river’s edge, a magnolia tree, a stained-glass hymn. Read the full piece here!

Khalisa Rae featured in The Chronicle!

On April 17 at the Hayti Heritage Center, seven slam poets competed for a coveted spot on the 2021 Bull City Slam Team. These poets are a part of the 16 year legacy of the “Triangle’s longest running poetry event” — the Jambalaya Soul Slam. Since 2005, poets have competed monthly. 12 slam poets, 18 years […]

GHOST IN A BLACK GIRL’S THROAT on list of “Best Southern Books of April 2021”

There are so many wonderful books coming out this month we just want to rave about them all! Since April is National Poetry Month, we included three poetry collections by Tiana Nobile, Khalisa Rae, and Kendra DeColo, and they are absolutely worth celebrating any month of the year. We’ve also got essay collections and novels […]

GHOST IN A BLACK GIRL’S THROAT (Khalisa Rae) listed on Poetry Daily!

Wondering what new books have just been published? We seriously consider every book we receive, and we feature poems from many of the best and most interesting collections among them, but it would be impossible to feature every fine book. Browse every book we’ve received in the past six months here—plus the list of journals and […]

Khalisa Rae’s GHOST IN A BLACK GIRL’S THROAT featured in The Root!

How does trauma affect the way we live our day-to-day lives? Is inherited or intergenerational trauma more significant than a trauma—or traumas—experienced firsthand? There are perspectives and arguments to consider for each side: Dealing with inherited trauma is multilayered, convening in a complex web of emotions. Being exposed to or experiencing an immense trauma can […]

GHOST IN A BLACK GIRL’S THROAT by Khalisa Rae listed on WRAL

As a reader and native North Carolinian, I love finding books that are set in NC and/or written by fellow NC folks. Since becoming a bookseller, I’ve been astounded by just how many Carolina authors there are to celebrate and promote! When I started compiling my list for 2021, I quickly discovered that I would […]

Khalisa Rae’s GHOST IN A BLACK GIRL’S THROAT is featured on The Rumpus!

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Read Poetry features GHOST IN A BLACK GIRL’S THROAT by Khalisa Rae!

It’s a new month, a new season, and now it’s time for new poetry collections. April promises gorgeous and pivotal collections that explore everything from trans identity to Black womanhood. Discover Read Poetry’s recommendations for timely, fresh collections to read next. Read the list here!

Khalisa Rae featured on Autostraddle: “Queering Faith”

Welcome to Autostraddle’s 2021 Black History Month essay series. In their recent stirring multi-media anthology Black Futures, Black queer creators Jenna Wortham and Kimberly Drew ask, “What does it mean to be Black and alive?” And so, this Black History Month, Autostraddle is reaching past, and pushing forward, to explore realities beyond (the pain of) what we have inherited. Read the full […]

Khalisa Rae is featured on NBC News!

This year welcomes a slate of Black authors who will publish young adult fiction ranging in subject matter, but sharing one common goal: to expand what it means to see Black teen girls as full, whole characters. Read the full piece here!

Khalisa Rae interviewed on PopSugar!

Self-care has never been more important than it is right now, and that’s especially true for Black women, who have had to juggle work, family, personal lives, and more amid ongoing racial trauma while also living in a pandemic. According to women’s rights organization LeanIn.org, Black women have faced an even greater burden and were more susceptible to […]

Reviews

EcoTheo Collective reviews Khalisa Rae’s GHOST IN A BLACK GIRL’S THROAT!

The American ghost, in Khalisa Rae’s narrative, is a chimera—a multi formed, multi-faceted reflection and mirror of society, of survival, and suspense, of waiting to see what the future will unfold as the collective holds its breath, hoping for that cathartic release.  Rae shows an incredible attention to form and design, her work structured around […]

AMERICAN QUASAR by David Campos reviewed in Rhino Poetry!

David Campos’s second collection, American Quasar, follows a lonely speaker’s dreams, meditations, and prayers to understand life. Campos juxtaposes inhumanity in the modern United States with inhumanity in the nuclear family, ultimately finding solace in space. Art by Maceo Montoya adds both texture and depth, further amplifying the message of human desolation. Read the review […]

GHOST IN A BLACK GIRL’S THROAT by Khalisa Rae reviewed in The Rumpus!

I was new to the seventh grade when Ms. Rossi routinely refused to acknowledge me. Though my hand stabbed the air in response to questions she posed, Ms. Rossi never called my name. “What d’ya think, Hillary?” or “Rebecca, you give it a go!” Each time Ms. Rossi’s eyes roamed over my hovering wicker-brown arm and landed on […]

GHOST IN A BLACK GIRL’S THROAT by Khalisa Rae reviewed in Marías at Sampaguitas!

Ghost in a Black Girl’s Throat, published in April 2021 by Red Hen Press, is poet Khalisa Rae’s debut collection, following her 2012 chapbook, Real Girls Have Real Problems. Rae is a poet, queer rights activist, journalist, and educator in Durham, North Carolina, and a graduate of the Queens University MFA program. She is Managing […]

EXTREMELY LIGHTWEIGHT GUNS reviewed by Rebellious Magazine!

Nikki Moustaki’s debut collection of poetry captures this divide and dissociation while establishing themes of darkness and light within the difficult narratives of suffering and abuse. These poems juxtapose the divine and the mundane, and situate pieces of Christian and Greek mythology side by side. Moustaki surpasses a meditation of the presence of beautiful within […]

[PANK] reviews GHOST IN A BLACK GIRL’S THROAT!

Khalisa Rae’s Ghost in a Black Girl’s Throat is like a newborn scream that’s been held in for eons. Sharp, strong, unapologetic, beautiful, and angry, the writing in this collection is a celebration of language and rhythm, and the words on the page run like the blood from a wound caused by racism. Click here to read […]

NewPages reviews GHOST IN A BLACK GIRL’S THROAT!

Guest Post by Lannie Stabile. A Black girl can be a dog, a rat, a gadget, a myth, a ghost, a mermaid, origami, or livestock. A Black girl can be a scavenger, a caged bird metaphor, a “perfect little alien,” or unwelcomed roots. A Black girl can be a black cloud, but she cannot be […]

The Culture Commentator reviews GHOST IN A BLACK GIRL’S THROAT!

What happens when a Midwestern girl migrates to a haunted Southern town, whose river is a graveyard, whose streets bear the names of Southern slave owners? How can she build a home where Confederate symbols strategically stand in the center of town? Can she sage the chilling truths of her ancestors? What will she do […]

Publishers Weekly reviews Khalisa Rae’s GHOST IN A BLACK GIRL’S THROAT!

Rae considers the intersection of history and modernity in the American South in her provocative debut. “The South will birth a new kind of haunting in your black girl-ness,” she warns the reader. These works range widely in form, including traditional lyric poems, list poems, lyric fragments, and found forms, such as the guidebook. As […]

GHOST IN A BLACK GIRL’S THROAT reviewed by Yes Poetry!

One facet in poetry’s beauty is its urgency. Its collective need–which is beyond desire–to facilitate a process that weaves its spill and story. Urgency is one of the driving forces in poems that grab us and enchant us. Click here to read more!