Description:
Poetry. African American Studies. "In Kelly Norman Ellis's long-awaited second collection, a grand cinema of black life is honey-beamed and balanced on a 'nipple of coal.' Somewhere in the middle of turning these pages, the reader will helplessly rise and mercilessly hunt for dirty rice and Bill Withers. It is indeed the poet's job to save something, but Ellis does more--she swears to paper a luscious book so rich with black zest and drylongso that each page sets high our thirst for all that is human, longed for and inexplicable."--Nikky Finney
"Every stanza in this fierce and formidable collection strikes a sweet, keening note for the colored girl--the front-row-center Sunday morning worshipper, the fast gal craving the jukebox on Saturday night, the grandmama arced over a stove-top staple, the precocious nappy-headed chile tripping the double-dutch line. With OFFERINGS OF DESIRE, Kelly Norman Ellis has graced us all with a gift that is nothing short of a miracle. She has blessed the sisterhood with a soundtrack."--Patricia Smith
Brief description: Kelly Norman Ellis is the author of Tougaloo Blues (2003) and Offerings of Desire (2012, 2025). Her poetry has appeared in Sisterfire: Black Womanist Fiction and Poetry, Boomer Girls, Essence Magazine, Obsidian, Cornbread Nation, and most recently Teaching Black: The Craft of Teaching on Black Life and Literature, Wherever I'm At: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry, and What Things Cost: an anthology for the people. Ellis received her PhD from the University of Kentucky and is a founding member of Affrilachian Poets. She is a recipient of a Kentucky Foundation for Women Writer's grant and is a Cave Canem Fellow. Ellis is Chairperson of the English Department at Chicago State University.
Review Quotes:
"In Kelly Norman Ellis' long awaited second collection, a grand cinema of black life is honey-beamed and balanced on a 'nipple of coal.' Somewhere in the middle of turning these pages, the reader will helplessly rise and mercilessly hunt for dirty rice and Bill Withers. It is indeed the poet's job to save something, but Ellis does more-she swears to paper a luscious book so rich with black zest and drylongso that each page sets high our thirst for all that is human, longed for and inexplicable."
Nikky Finney, author of Head Off & Split, 2011 National Book Award for Poetry
"Every stanza in this fierce and formidable collection strikes a sweet, keening note for the
colored girl-the front-row-center Sunday morning worshipper, the fast gal craving the jukebox on Saturday night, the grandmama arced over a stove-top staple, the precocious nappy-headed chile tripping the double-dutch line. With Offerings of Desire, Kelly Norman Ellis has graced us all with a gift that is nothing short of a miracle. She has blessed the sisterhood with a soundtrack."
Patricia Smith, author of Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah (Coffee House, 2012) and Blood Dazzler, 2008 National Book Award Finalist
"Kelly Norman Ellis declares "I am a woman of omens," and you can't look away. Like the perfectly chartered bloodlines of her debut, Tougaloo Blues, Ellis speaks to our bodies and souls once again with Offerings of Desire: a daily soundtrack of work/love/life songs that happily blurs the lines. I would be less than honest if I didn't say I am a student of her words, that I learn what it means to sculpt sight, sound and memory in Ellis' rich appeals to the senses. These poems are a seat at a table of plenty, each course more pleasing than the last. When she raises an invocation 'for Robeson and Einstein, / the hustler on the El/and the banger on my corner, ' believe. This poet can conjure such a varied and magical world."
Mitchell L. H. Douglas, author of Cooling Board: A Long-Playing Poem