Poem of the Week | February 24, 2014
Valerie Nieman: "Like Mother"
This week we feature a new poem by Valerie Nieman. A 2013-2014 North Carolina poetry fellow, Nieman is the author of one poetry collection, Wake Wake Wake, as well as a short story collection and three novels. Her poetry has appeared in Poetry, New Letters, Blackbird, and many other journals as well as several anthologies. Her latest novel, Blood Clay, was the 2012 winner of the Eric Hoffer Award in General Fiction and a finalist for the John Gardner Fiction Book Prize. Nieman graduated from West Virginia University and holds an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. A former newspaper reporter and editor, she teaches creative writing at North Carolina A&T State University and serves as poetry editor of Prime Number magazine.
Author’s note:
“Like Mother” is from a novel-in-verse, The Leopard Lady Speaks, the story of a biracial orphan born in Appalachia and raised in servitude until she finds a life on the road with a carnival. Self-educated, her voice is a blend of Appalachian and African-American dialects with the elegant phrasing of the King James Bible. In this work in progress, I seek to highlight places and people now fading into the past – remote mountain communities, Afro-lachian peoples, and the world of the traveling ten-in-one show.
Like Mother
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