In the next chapter of the Cave Canem/Northwestern University Poetry Prize, we enter the poetic world of Vievee Francis. Bold and skilled, Francis takes us into the still landscapes of Texas and the fluid details of the African American South. Her poems become panhandle folktales revealing the weight of memories so clear and on the cusp. Her creative tangle of metaphors, people and geography will keep the reader rooted in a good earth of extraordinary verse.

Vievee Francis is the author of Blue-Tail Fly: Poems (2006). Her work has appeared or is forth­coming in several periodicals and anthologies including Crab Orchard Review, Rattle, Best Ameri­can Poetry 2010, and Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry. She was the 2009-2010 Poet-in-Residence for the Alice Lloyd Hall Scholars Program and is the recipient of a 2009 Rona Jaffe Award, a 2010 Kresge Artist Fellowship, and Cave Canem fel­lowships. She is an associate editor for Callaloo.