Wicked Enchantment: Selected Poems

By Wanda Coleman and Terrance Hayes

A voice for justice, anti-racism, and equality—here is the greatest and most powerful work of the people’s poet, Wanda Coleman.

One of the most talked about literary collections of the year is this collection by a beat-up, broke, and Black woman who wrote with anger, humor, and clarity about her life on the margins. Wicked Enchantment: Selected Poems is a selection of 130 of Coleman’s poems spanning four decades, edited and introduced by Terrance Hayes. Although Coleman was rejected by the literary elites during her lifetime, here’s what people are saying now about Wicked Enchantment:

“Wanda Coleman is not just wickedly wise, she is transcendent.” —The Washington Post

“These poems are wildly fun and inventive . . . and frequently hilarious; they seem to cover every human experience and emotion.” —The New York Times

“Wanda Coleman’s work has that ineffable quality that accompanies poetry you understand in your belly and your head. . . . It is an unmistakable style that propels a Coleman poem, and draws us into it.” —Reginald Dwayne Betts

“Wicked Enchantment has words to crack you open and heal you where it counts—hateful and hilarious, heartbroke and hellbent.” —Mary Karr, New York Times bestselling author

“One of the greatest poets ever to come out of L.A.” —The New Yorker

“One of the most exciting, original, deliciously dangerous voices of the 20th century.” —The Irish Times

“Required Reading” —Bustle

“Best Poetry of 2020” The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Irish Times

Winner California Independent Booksellers Alliance’s 2020 Golden Poppy Award for Poetry

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Apr 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9781574232349

Wanda Coleman

Wanda Coleman—poet, storyteller and journalist—was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles. Coleman was awarded the prestigious 1999 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for Bathwater Wine from the American Academy of Poets, becoming the first African-American woman to ever win the prize, and Mercurochrome was a bronze-medal finalist for the 2001 National Book Award for Poetry. Wicked Enchantment: Selected Poems was the first new collection of her work since her death in 2013.

Book preview

Wanda in Worryland

i get scared sometimes

and have to go look in to the closet to see if his clothes

are still there

i have been known to imagine a situation

and then get involved in it, upset, angry and

cry hot tears

i have gone after people

with guns

once i tried to hang myself and got terribly ashamed

afterwards because i was really faking it

i have gone after people

with rocks

i have cursed out old white lady cart pushers in

supermarkets who block the aisles in slow motion

i have gone after people

with my fists

i have walked out on pavlovian trainers who mistook

Reviews for Wicked Enchantment

[msf59 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I had not heard of Wanda Coleman before picking up this new collection of her selected works but it made me an instant fan. Sadly, she passed in 2013. Most of these poems were written 30-40 years ago but are strikingly relevant to the current racial environment in America today. I hope this collection finds her a whole new audience.