“It took Camille T. Dungy over a decade to write the poems in America, A Love Story and this collection aptly captures what fleeting time can hold, and the weight of its history. With precision and candor, Dungy examines Black womanhood and motherhood in America and turns a questioning gaze at love, survival, and beauty. On these pages, there is no looking away from despair and the terror that plagues one’s life. “No story I write could ignore the perils that endanger my loves, threaten to kill them,” she writes. Dungy’s language is unrestrained and unapologetic, and the poems surprise, unsettle, and awaken you.
Dungy and I connected over email. We talked about motherhood, writing in the face of fear, putting the emotion of anger to good use, and insisting on beauty and love.”
Read the interview here.