The Venus Hottentot

Back in print, this now-classic volume of poems investigates history, gender, and race in America with uncommon clarity and music.

The Venus Hottentot, which first appeared in 1990, offers exploratory, smart, well-constructed works ranging from personal memory to cultural history to human personae—and often all at once, as in the astonishing title poem (concerning a 19th-century African woman who was shown as a carnival exhibit). Other telling figures inhabiting Alexander's rich and resonant poems include John Coltrane, Frida Kahlo, and Nelson Mandela.

Praise

"Readers owe themselves the many pleasures to be found in this book; Elizabeth Alexander creates intellectual magic in poem after poem."—The New York Times Book Review

"[These] poems are catchy, seductive, steeped in history, [and] more rewarding on successive readings. The Venus Hottentot is a superb first book."—Poetry

"One of the most exciting books of poetry to come out in a very long time . . . An extraordinary new voice has been added to literature."—People

About the Author(s)

Elizabeth Alexander

Other books by the poet and essayist Elizabeth Alexander include The Black Interior, Body of Life, and Antebellum Dream Book. She currently teaches English and African American Studies at Yale University.