“Throughout this collection, Maples is preoccupied with endearing depictions of nurture and protection that ‘infect us with hope’ even when she acknowledges the ways in which family can cause pain and disappointment. And because Maples’s viewfinder is never long averted from the symbiosis of the clownfish and anemone, the banner over Long Eye is love.” —Cedric Tillman, author of In My Feelings 

“Attentive to ancestors, siblings, children, and a beloved, and punctuated by pieces entitled ‘Autobiography of a Black Mermaid,’ this collection of praise songs and elegies is awash with bodies of water, and a current of gorgeous, oceanic vocabulary. —Rebecca Hart Olander, author of Singing from the Deep End

“‘There is mercy in water, relief // for evil on land,’ observes the Black Mermaid whose oracular vision guides Kwoya Fagin Maples's stunning second collection Long Eye. Indeed, as these poems move from wave to shore, they are rich with blue whales, oysters, dolphins, parrotfish, and all the creatures of the roaring Atlantic. What I admire most about these poems is their keen gaze at both human horror and natural beauty, bound together by the tender intimacies of family and love.” —Nancy Reddy, author of Pocket Universe

“In poems that are lush, seductive and finely crafted, Kwoya Fagin Maples takes a long clear-eyed look at what it means to be a Black woman navigating American waters both serene and stormy. In this poet’s capable hands, the sea becomes the ‘Womb from which/We all spring,’ the source of our rhythm, language, tribulation, and hope. Like children in the shallows, we, too, dart in and out of the waves, sometimes renewed, sometimes overcome, but always delighted. This book feeds my soul, fulfilling the author's pronouncement, ‘I was born with a job to record.’” —Jacqueline Allen Trimble, author of How to Survive the Apocalypse, Poet Laureate of Alabama

Praise for Mend

“Maples’s skill as a poet pours through every page of this book. This is difficult material, but she illuminates it with carefully shaped lines and flowing prose poems. Her voice is vivid, urgent. Every line is powerful.” —New York Journal of Books 

“Maples’s masterful image-making magnetizes and mesmerizes [...]. Art hurts and it heals. Kwoya Fagin Maples is a visionary doctor. History is humbled in her hands.” —Abraham Smith, author of Destruction of Man

“Mend is a brutal story, lyrically told in the voices of three of those women, and its author has memorably created both a painful reminder and a beautiful tribute.” —Kim Addonizio, from the runner up citation for The Donald Hall Prize

“With Mend, Kwoya Fagin Maples is equal parts teacher and poet: releasing a part of history that needed to be told, she's brought dignity and light to the women of Mt. Meigs; further, she's urging readers to learn and listen, to not repeat the ugliness hidden in our white-washed past. This is a must-read book for anyone, timeless and worth any praise Maples may yet garner for it.” —Alabama Writers’ Forum

“Maples does not flinch to enunciate the disgusting truths of racism and misogyny; neither does she neglect the possibility of beauty. These poems carry an unbearable weight of witness: so much suffering, but also the joy of survival, the survival of joy.” —Joel Brouwer, University of Alabama

“Maples’s poems are narrative-driven, yet clear-voiced and lyrical; she writes us a world, a history, with her vision and leans back into a past to write herself into the story.” —DéLana R. A. Dameron, author of Weary Kingdom: Poems

Kwoya Fagin Maples is a poet, woodworker and teacher of creative writing. A Charleston, S.C. native, her creative practice spans both literary and visual arts. She is the author of Mend (University Press of Kentucky, 2018) and co-editor of I Witness: An Anthology of Documentary Poetry, forthcoming from Wesleyan University Press. Maples’s debut collection, Mend, received a 2019 Hurston/Wright Legacy Finalist Award for Poetry. Maples is a graduate Cave Canem Fellow. She lives in Birmingham, AL.

Autobiography of a Black Mermaid Blue Whale Chimera
When We Get to the Ocean, I Don’t See It
Attention Deficit Pastoral
The Beach is Host to Small Things
Autobiography of a Black Mermaid
Should You Love a Poet
Another Severe Weather Warning
The Next-Door Neighbors, 1990
Atlantic Origin
Thinning Sea-Bed of Clouds
Autobiography of a Black Mermaid
Folly Beach
((Quiet.))
Seeing You See Me
Autobiography of a Black Mermaid
I Am Seagoing
Owed to the Atlantic
Autobiography of a Black Mermaid
The Proposal
Oyster Meditation
The Bee
The sound of gravel sinking under my tires
Autobiography of a Black Mermaid
Nature vs. Nurture
Unfold a Chair in the Front Yard of My Childhood Home
Autobiography of a Black Mermaid
Word Choice
Passover for a Marriage
Flash of Sister Shanna & Brother Jared
Soon After Dad Starts Going to Church with Mom the TV Set is on the Trash Heap
There are No More Lighthouse Keepers
Autobiography of a Black Mermaid
The Plan
Nine Years Later We Ride an ATV Out in the Country
Expeecting
Sleep Deprived in the Waiting Room
Sex After Baby
Shadow Monster
Ms. Midriff
How the Atlantic Became an Influencer
The Miracle of Us
Autobiography of a Black Mermaid
Putting on her perfume nightly
For Natylie
Elegy For Larry Freeman
Blackberry Winter
Autobiography of a Black Mermaid
! The Looking War of Pisa !
Table for Black Family of Five in Firenze, Italy
Autobiography of a Black Mermaid
Birthday
As If There is An Art to Losing
Autobiography of a Black Mermaid
Black Heart
Three Heads of Hair to Comb
Attention Deficit Anti-Pastoral
Autobiography of a Black Mermaid
The Ritual
Invisible Work
Autobiography of a Black Mermaid