Publication: 2018
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
A critical analysis of the poetic representations and legacies of five landmark blues artists: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Leadbelly, and Robert Johnson.
1. What inspired you to pursue the lines of research and writing that resulted in this book?
Twenty years ago, Sterling Brown’s “Ma Rainey” inspired me to consider what it meant for a poet to reimagine a live blues performance—a transformative but ultimately ephemeral experience—on the printed page and to fashion one’s poetics to resemble aspects of the blues form. That interest in invocations of blues figures and forms became the subject of my master’s thesis and then my dissertation, both of which focused on poetic representations of blues icons from the Harlem Renaissance through the contemporary era.
2. What surprised you most during your research or writing process?
I initially underestimated just how many blues and jazz poems have been published over the past century. I am very grateful to Sascha Feinstein for cataloging many of those poems in A Bibliographic Guide to Jazz and, with Yusuf Komunyakaa, The Second Set, Vol 2: The Jazz Poetry Anthology. I had far more material, particularly Billie Holiday poems, than I could examine in The Blues Muse.
3. What was the hardest decision you had to make while writing this book?
I worked on The Blues Muse for many years in many different iterations (e.g., master’s thesis, dissertation, chapters that became articles and conference presentations, etc.), and that made it difficult to see the project anew when it came time to structure the book. I had many competing voices of mentors and reviewers in my head pulling me in this or that direction. I finally arrived at a book outline that was reflective of my aims, and that was an important milestone in trusting my own judgment as a researcher and writer.
4. What's one lesson you learned while producing this book that you'll carry into future projects?
There are going to be lots of setbacks (even failures) in the process of writing a book—it’s no small feat to complete a project that has the argumentative heft and breadth of a peer-reviewed monograph. Along the way, a mentor said, if you finish the book, it will get published, and I often still think of that reassuring guidance. One needs perseverance and resilience to complete a book and usher it into the world.
5. If any come to mind, are there books in African American literary studies that you see your work in conversation with?
Angela Y. Davis’s Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday
Sascha Feinstein’s Jazz Poetry: From the 1920s to the Present
Emily J. Lordi’s Black Resonance: Iconic Women Singers and African American Literature Jennifer D. Ryan’s Post-Jazz Poetics: A Social History
Cheryl A. Wall’s Worrying the Line: Black Women Writers, Lineage, and Literary Tradition
A critical analysis of the poetic representations and legacies of five landmark blues artists: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Leadbelly, and Robert Johnson.
This post is part of the Books in Brief series, which features concise conversations with scholars about their books in African American literary studies.
1. What inspired you to pursue the lines of research and writing that resulted in this book?
Twenty years ago, Sterling Brown’s “Ma Rainey” inspired me to consider what it meant for a poet to reimagine a live blues performance—a transformative but ultimately ephemeral experience—on the printed page and to fashion one’s poetics to resemble aspects of the blues form. That interest in invocations of blues figures and forms became the subject of my master’s thesis and then my dissertation, both of which focused on poetic representations of blues icons from the Harlem Renaissance through the contemporary era.
2. What surprised you most during your research or writing process?
I initially underestimated just how many blues and jazz poems have been published over the past century. I am very grateful to Sascha Feinstein for cataloging many of those poems in A Bibliographic Guide to Jazz and, with Yusuf Komunyakaa, The Second Set, Vol 2: The Jazz Poetry Anthology. I had far more material, particularly Billie Holiday poems, than I could examine in The Blues Muse.
3. What was the hardest decision you had to make while writing this book?
I worked on The Blues Muse for many years in many different iterations (e.g., master’s thesis, dissertation, chapters that became articles and conference presentations, etc.), and that made it difficult to see the project anew when it came time to structure the book. I had many competing voices of mentors and reviewers in my head pulling me in this or that direction. I finally arrived at a book outline that was reflective of my aims, and that was an important milestone in trusting my own judgment as a researcher and writer.
4. What's one lesson you learned while producing this book that you'll carry into future projects?
There are going to be lots of setbacks (even failures) in the process of writing a book—it’s no small feat to complete a project that has the argumentative heft and breadth of a peer-reviewed monograph. Along the way, a mentor said, if you finish the book, it will get published, and I often still think of that reassuring guidance. One needs perseverance and resilience to complete a book and usher it into the world.
5. If any come to mind, are there books in African American literary studies that you see your work in conversation with?
Angela Y. Davis’s Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday
Sascha Feinstein’s Jazz Poetry: From the 1920s to the Present
Emily J. Lordi’s Black Resonance: Iconic Women Singers and African American Literature Jennifer D. Ryan’s Post-Jazz Poetics: A Social History
Cheryl A. Wall’s Worrying the Line: Black Women Writers, Lineage, and Literary Tradition
