The Undertaker's Daughter - (Pitt Poetry) by Toi Derricotte (Paperback)

About the Book

"Poems that stick with you like a song that won't stop repeating itself in your brain, poems whose cadences burrow into your bloodstream, orchestrating your breathing long before their sense attaches its hooks to your heart."--Washington Post on Captivity

Book Synopsis

"Poems that stick with you like a song that won't stop repeating itself in your brain, poems whose cadences burrow into your bloodstream, orchestrating your breathing long before their sense attaches its hooks to your heart."

--Washington Post on Captivity

Review Quotes

Derricotte's words touch the reader as life has touched her, soul and body. This is a strong, sensuous, original, courageous book.-- "Adrienne Rich on Captivity"

In plain language that does not settle for simplicity or cliche, these poems probe being at its root--sexually, spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually--and recount how violence, both physical and mental, ravages the self.-- "Library Journal on Tender"

Let the reader of 'The Undertaker's Daughter' beware--it may make you burn to exorcise your own lifelong fears, and replace them with freedom. But you will have to find your own way, as Derricotte has.-- "Womenis Review of Books"

Poems that stick with you like a song that won't stop repeating itself in your brain, poems whose cadences burrow into your bloodstream, orchestrating your breathing long before their sense attaches its hooks to your heart.-- "Washington Post on Captivity"

This is a personal, moving work about child abuse, racial 'passing, ' and women making art, and will attract all readers interested in these topics.-- "Library Journal"

Toi Derricotte's poems show us our underlife, tender and dreadful. And they are vibrant poems, poems in the voice of the living creature, the one who escaped--and paused, and turned back, and saw, and cried out. This is one of the most beautiful and necessary voices in American poetry today.-- "Sharon Olds on Captivity"

About the Author

Toi Derricotte is an award-winning poet whose work tackles difficult and universal subject matter such as violence, racism, motherhood, and self-identity through an autobiographical lens. She is the author of The Undertaker's Daughter and four previous poetry collections, including Tender, winner of the Paterson Poetry Prize. She is the recipient of two Pushcart Prizes and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, among other honors. Derricotte is cofounder of Cave Canem, professor emerita at the University of Pittsburgh, and a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.