LibGuides: African American Women Writers: doris davenport

Biography

Doris Davenport is a writer, literary and performance poet, and educator who was born in Gainesville, Ga. and grew up in the Appalachian foothills of Northeast Georgia, a region she says has always richly inhabited her life and work. She wrote her first short story ("a gory ghost story") at the age of 12 and has been writing since. At Paine College in Augusta, she was graduated with a BA in English in 1969 and subsequently completed a master's degree at SUNY-Buffalo (NY) and a Ph.D in African-American literature from the University of Southern California. Her first poetry book, a self-published chapbook, "It's Like This," appeared in 1980. Since then, her published books include "Eat Thunder & Drink Rain" (1982), "Voodoo Chile - Slight Return" (1991), "Soquee Street Poems" (1995), "Madness Like Morning Glories" (published by Louisiana State University Press in 2005) and "A Hunger for Moonlight" (2006). (Georgia Center for the Book)

Genre: Poetry

More about doris davenport at Oxford Reference

By doris davenport

Eat thunder & drink rain : poems by doris davenport
Listen Here: women writing in Appalachia by Sandra L. Ballard (Editor); Patricia L. Hudson (Editor)
From regional favorites to national bestsellers, this unprecedented gathering of Appalachian voices displays the remarkable talent of the region's women writers who've made their mark at home and across the globe.
This Bridge Called My Back : writings by radical women of color by Gloria Anzaldúa; Cherríe Moraga (Editors)
Through personal essays, criticism, interviews, testimonials, poetry, and visual art, the collection explores, as coeditor Cherríe Moraga writes, "the complex confluence of identities--race, class, gender, and sexuality--systemic to women of color oppression and liberation."

About doris davenport

Her Words: diverse voices in contemporary Appalachian women's poetry by Felicia Mitchell
Combining poems, interviews, critical essays, and comments by the poets themselves--some acclaimed nationally and others best known regionally--Her Words celebrates the work of these writers and demonstrates their rightful place as part of the literary canon both within and beyond Appalachia. Each chapter opens with two poems by the writer under consideration, followed by a commentary that highlights the contributions and distinctive characteristics of that poet. The poets' own perspectives on their work are revealed in conversations and interviews with the critics. This multifaceted approach allows readers an unusually balanced view of the poetic voice and what inspires it. Moreover, Her Words reveals a diversity within Appalachian poetry and culture that is often overlooked. In their work, the poets reflect this richness of the Appalachian experience, whether the writer is a native of the region, a transplant, an "expatriate" living elsewhere, or a sojourner.
Mouths of Rain : An Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought by Briona Simone Jones
traces the long history of intellectual thought produced by Black Lesbian writers, spanning the nineteenth century through the twenty-first century. Using “Black Lesbian” as a capacious signifier, Mouths of Rain includes writing by Black women who have shared intimate and loving relationships with other women, as well as Black women who see bonding as mutual, Black women who have self-identified as lesbian, Black women who have written about Black Lesbians, and Black women who theorize about and see the word lesbian as a political descriptor that disrupts and critiques capitalism, heterosexism, and heteropatriarchy. Taking its title from a poem by Audre Lorde, Mouths of Rain addresses pervasive issues such as misogynoir and anti-blackness while also attending to love, romance, “coming out,” and the erotic.