E. Ethelbert Miller Vertigo Books Washington, D.C

American Visions, June, 1999 by E. Ethelbert Miller

Summer reading lists can be like New Year's resolutions: difficult to keep, but easy to make. I have piles of books in my den. Being a literary activist, I try to keep up with this cultural renaissance that we seem to be having again. Walk into any bookstore and notice the colorization of the shelves. Our work is no longer in the back of stores, next to gardening books and instructional manuals for strange hobbies.

One writer who has started to receive wider recognition is the poet Yusef Komunyakaa. I purchased a copy of his latest collection, Thieves of Paradise (University Press of New England, 1998), a few months ago, but only read a few poems. I plan to start over again. Komunyakaa is the only African-American male to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. He received the award in 1994, for Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems (University Press of New England, 1993). Komunyakaa is one of those writers who puts the language on notice.

I also want to read Marilyn Nelson's Fields of Praise: New and Selected Poems (Louisiana State University Press, 1997). Nelson once wrote under the name Waniek. She is an African-American poet living in Connecticut. Nelson is like Rita Dove, a person who seldom runs a red light when writing. Her words do for poetry what Wynton Marsalis has done for jazz. She restores the dignity that we once associated with such authors as Robert Hayden.

If I make it to the beach (or front porch) anytime this summer, I plan to take Toni Morrison's Paradise (Knopf, 1998). I intend to read Morrison's work after the weather changes, after all the reviews have been written and folks start saying they don't like the book quite as much as her last one. OK, I'll see for myself. I might read Gloria R. Naylor's The Men of Brewster Place (Hyperion, 1998) right after Morrison. I have the feeling that Naylor's last novel might soon become a trick question on a television game show: "Did Gloria Naylor write The Women or The Men of Brewster Place?" Folks tend to overlook her last book.

This summer, I'll probably pick up my favorite book, The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction, 1948-1985 (St. Martin's Press, 1985), by James Baldwin. I keep returning to his essays; to me they are as comforting as his recording of "Precious Lord."

I plan to keep a short reading list this summer. I am presently editing a two-volume poetry anthology for Black Classic Press. My own writing keeps me busy, doing what I call "fathering words." Not until all the work is done will I be able to simply pick up a good book, relax and just read it. My summer reading list might just be that cold drink I need to taste.

E. Ethelbert Miller is a partner of Vertigo Books and the director of the African American Resource Center at Howard University. His forthcoming book, Fathering Words: The Making of an African American Writer, will be published next year by St. Martin's Press.