num_pages: 640
description: “ Directed by Desire . . . is a powerful addition to the entire canon of American poetry.”— Booklist Now in paperback, Directed by Desire is the definitive overview of June Jordan’s -poetry. Collecting the finest work from Jordan’s ten volumes, as well as dozens of “last poems” that were never published in Jordan’s lifetime, these more than six hundred pages overflow with intimate lyricism, elegance, fury, meditative solos, and dazzling vernacular riffs. As Adrienne Rich writes in her introduction, June Jordan “wanted her readers, listeners, students, to feel their own latent power—of the word, the deed, of their own beauty and intrinsic value.” From “These Poems”: These poemsthey are things that I doin the darkreaching for youwhoever you areandare you ready? The cloth edition of Directed by Desire was selected as a Library Journal Poetry Book of the Year and received the Lambda Book Award for Lesbian Poetry. June Jordan taught at UC Berkeley for many years and founded Poetry for the People. Her twenty-eight books include poetry, essays, fiction, and children’s books. She was a regular columnist for The Progressive and a prolific writer whose articles appeared in The Village Voice, The New York Times, Ms. Magazine, and The Nation. After her death in 2002, a school in the San Francisco School District was renamed in her honor.
language: English
title: Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan
titlecomplete: Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan
genres: Literature, Feminism, Queer, Womens, African American, LGBT, Bisexual, Race, Poetry, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 446
awards: awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: Lambda Literary Award
category: Lesbian Poetry, awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: The Publishing Triangle Award
category: The Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry
publisher: Copper Canyon Press