100+ Volumes of Black Poetry, 2000 - 2019

Yesterday, I pulled together this list, "100+ Volumes of Black Poetry, 1980 - 1999." I wanted a point of comparison, so today I pulled together a list of the next 20 years with the same 35 poets. 

[Related: List of black poets who published volumes from 1980 - 1999]

2000: Blessing The Boats: New and Collected Poems 1988–2000 by Lucille Clifton

2000: Pastoral by Carl Phillips

2000: Songlines in Michaeltree: New and Collected Poems by Michael S. Harper

2000: Poems by Michael S. Harper

2001: Antebellum Dream Book by Elizabeth Alexander

2001: Mercurochrome by Wanda Coleman

2001: Brutal Imagination by Cornelius Eady

2001: Pleasure Dome: New and Collected Poems by Yusef Komunyakaa

2001: Talking Dirty to the Gods by Yusef Komunyakaa

2001: Buddha Weeping in Winter by E. Ethelbert Miller

2001: Carver, a Life in Poems by Marilyn Nelson

2001: The Tether by Carl Phillips

2001: Velvet BeBop Kente Cloth by Sterling Plumpp

2001: The Sound of Dreams Remembered: Poems 1990-2000 by Al Young

2001: To Repel Ghosts: Five Sides in B Minor by Kevin Young

2001: Plot by Claudia Rankine

2001: Debridement: Song I Want a Witness & Debridement by Michael S. Harper

2001: Da Black Book of Linguistic Liberation  by C. Liegh McInnis

2002: Jazz Dan Looks Back by Jayne Cortez

2002: Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems by Nikki Giovanni

2002: The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection (album) by Nikki Giovanni

2002: Rock Harbor by Carl Phillips

2002: Piece Logic by Erica Hunt

2002: Transcircularities; New and Selected Poems by Quincy Troupe

2002: Selected Poems by Michael S. Harper

2002: Borders of Disorderly Time (album) by Jayne Cortez

100+ Volumes of Black Poetry, 1980 - 1999

I was recently talking with literary scholar Ryan Sharp about black poetry during the 1990s. The conversation had me wondering about publications published in the two decades leading to the 21st century. 

[Related: 100+ Volumes of Black Poetry, 2000 - 2019]

I identified 35 poets and their volumes of poetry. What follows is an incomplete list of those books published between 1980 - 1999. 

1980: The Yellow House on the Corner by Rita Dove

1980: Passion by June Jordan 

1980: Two-Headed Woman by Lucille Clifton

1982: New Music - New Poetry (album) by Amiri Baraka with David Murray And Steve McCall

1982: The Mud Actor by Cyrus Cassells

1982: The Blues Don't Change: New and Selected Poems by Al Young

1982: Poems of Love and Understanding by Lenard D. Moore

1982: There It Is (album) by Jayne Cortez

1982: Chosen Poems: Old and New by Audre Lorde

1982: Season of Hunger/Cry of Rain: Poems 1975-1980 by E. Ethelbert Miller

1982: The Mojo Hands Call, I Must Go by Sterling Plumpp

1982: Firespitter by Jayne Cortez

1983: Museum by Rita Dove

1983: Those Who Ride The Night Winds by Nikki Giovanni 

1983: Imagoes by Wanda Coleman

1984: Across the Mutual Landscape by Christopher Gilbert

1984: Homegirls & Handgrenades by Sonia Sanchez

1984: Copacetic by Yusef Komunyakaa

1984: Skulls Along the River by Quincy Troupe

1984: Coagulations: New and Selected Poems by Jayne Cortez

1985: On Wings Made of Gauze by Nikky Finney

1985: Mama's Promises by Marilyn Nelson

1985: The Open Eye by Lenard D. Moore

1985: Eroding Witness by Nathaniel Mackey

1985: Healing Song for the Inner Ear by Michael S. Harper

1985: Living Room: New Poem by June Jordan

1986: I Apologize for the Eyes in My Head by Yusef Komunyakaa

1986: Thomas and Beulah by Rita Dove 

1986: Our Dead Behind Us by Audre Lorde

1986: Toys in a Field by Yusef Komunyakaa

1986: Maintain Control (album) by Jayne Cortez

1986: Where Are the Love Poems for Dictators? by E. Ethelbert Miller

1986: Sin by Ai

1986: Victims of the Latest Dance Craze by Cornelius Eady

1987: Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir: 1969–1980 by Lucille Clifton

1987: Next: New Poems by Lucille Clifton

1987: Killing Memory, Seeking Ancestors by Haki Madhubuti 

1987: Heavy Daughter Blues: Poems & Stories 1968-1986 by Wanda Coleman

1987: Under a Soprano Sky by Sonia Sanchez

1988: Ten Oxherding Pictures by Lucille Clifton

1988: Dien Cai Dau by Yusef Komunyakaa

1989: Grace Notes by Rita Dove

1989: Blues: The Story Always Untold by Sterling Plumpp

Black poets who published volumes from 1980 - 1999 & 2000 - 2019

Here's a partial list of poets who published works between 1980 - 1999 and from 2000 - 2019.

Related: 100+ Volumes of Black Poetry, 1980 - 1999 and 100+ Volumes of Black Poetry, 2000 - 2019

Ai 

Elizabeth Alexander 

Amiri Baraka 

Cyrus Cassells 

Lucille Clifton 

Wanda Coleman 

Jayne Cortez 

Toi Derricotte 

Rita Dove 

Cornelius Eady 

Nikky Finney

Christopher Gilbert 

Nikki Giovanni 

Michael S. Harper

Erica Hunt

Patricia Spears Jones 

June Jordan 

Allison Joseph

Yusef Komunyakaa 

Audre Lorde 

Nathaniel Mackey 

Haki Madhubuti 

C. Liegh McInnis

E. Ethelbert Miller 

Lenard D. Moore

Marilyn Nelson 

Carl Phillips 

Sterling Plumpp 

Claudia Rankine

Eugene B. Redmond 

Sonia Sanchez 

Patricia Smith 

Quincy Troupe

Al Young 

Kevin Young

Blogging about poetry in June 2022

[Related content: Blogging about Poetry]

• June 30: Book History and African American Poetry

• June 1: Blogging about poetry in May 2022