Finney, “(She) calls us to consider and value again the blessings found in community, the strong bonds of family and the transcendent and inexplicable ways of the spirit. Finney “takes a leapfrog hop of the extraordinary over the commonplace,” writes Black Issues Book Review, as in the poem “Coda,” which examines the intimate landscape of her close-knit family.Ĭaribbean poet Lorna Goodison wrote of Ms. She has also authored the collection of stories, Heartwood (1997) and edited The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South (2007).Įxploring characters as diverse as Jacques Cousteau and Saartjie Baartman (the so-called Hottentot Venus), young women defined by violence and old women killing time in a thrift store, Ms. Finney has authored four books of poetry: Head Off & Split (2011) The World Is Round (2003) Rice (1995) and On Wings Made of Gauze (1985). Finney’s work, “She has flung me into an afterbirth of stars and made my stiff bones as loose as jelly.” Ms Finney’s poems have been described as powerful and warm, like her southern roots, and provide glimpses into the human adventures of birth, death, family, violence, sexuality, and relationship, exploring the soul of human community. The characters in this new book by poet Nikky Finney are the heartwood of their small Kentucky.

Finney was Grace Hazard Conkling Writer-in-Residence at Smith. Deep in the center of every tree, youll find the heartwood. Finney is also on the faculty at Cave Canem, the prestigious Black Poetry organization founded in 1996 and located in New York City, and a founding member of the Affrilachian Poets, “the coal black African voices of Appalacia,” as she says. Finney is the Guy Davenport Endowed Professor in English and Creative Writing at the University of Kentucky. Finney’s fourth book of poetry, Head Off & Split, was awarded the 2011 National Book Award for poetry.Īn alumna of Talladega College and Atlanta University, Ms. Celebrated poet Nikky Finney was born in Conway, South Carolina, the daughter of an attorney and teacher, both civil rights activists. Finney has authored four books of poetry: On Wings Made of Gauze (1985) Rice (1995) The World Is Round (2003) and Head Off & Split (2011), which received.

The World Is Round by Nikky Finney