While Derricotte explores the universal fear
of death in The Empress of the Death House, she
also uses as central themes exclusive female expe-
riences and anger about the dismissive treatment
of women. The portrayal of African-American fe-
male victims and survivors is a theme that persists
in Derricotte’s work. In fact, Derricotte’s second
collection, Natural Birth (1983), focuses almost
exclusively on female experiences. In this text, she
explores the pain and degradation experienced in
childbearing. Much of this poetry is again based
on personal experience. After her divorce, Derri-
cotte gave birth to her son, Anthony, in a home for
unwed mothers. From this solely female experi-
ence, Derricotte broadens her focus, returning to
the universal experiences of fear and ecstasy that
transcend gender roles.
Derricotte again challenged borders when, in
1989, she published Captivity. This collection of
poetry uses the aftermath of slavery in contempo-
rary African-American lives to begin a discussion
of abuse within the family and racism in society.
As W. E. B.DUBOIS argued, African Americans are
forced to experience a double consciousness: the
sense of measuring themselves through the eyes
of others and forcing the realities that do not
coincide with the idealized portrait of human
behavior to remain hidden. Derricotte’s goal in
Captivity is to begin to unravel the binds of dou-
ble consciousness through a candid examination
of the silenced issues that arise within the lives of
African Americans.
Derricotte’s fourth collection, Tender, upholds
the tradition she began in her first text: Her poems
use plain but precise language to explore issues of
violence, sexuality, and racism. One of the most
interesting characteristics of this collection is that
all of the poems emanate from the title poem. In
this short poem, Derricotte questions the meaning
of the word tender, which is used to describe both
meat and family. Derricotte also begins to discuss
in this work the issue of “passing,” which she more
thoroughly explores in her prose work The Black
Notebook (1997). Composed of selections from the
journal she kept for more than 20 years, The Black
Notebook focuses on the complex search for iden-
tity by a black woman who is light enough to pass.
Compared to Doris Lessing’s The Golden Note-
book, The Black Notebook offers a unique perspec-
tive on the racial divide by discussing Derricotte’s
ability and choice to pass as white in certain situ-
ations. As Derricotte dangles between hating her
blackness and not being black enough, we begin
to see her develop as a 20th-century multicultural
woman writer.
Toi Derricotte currently works as an associ-
ate professor at the University of Pittsburgh.
Aside from the texts previously mentioned, she
has been published in numerous anthologies
and in periodicals such as American Poetry Re-
view, Poetry Northwest, and Northwest Review.
Derricotte has received many awards, including
the Distinguished Pioneering of the Arts Award
from the United Black Artists, the Paterson Po-
etry Prize, two Pushcart Prizes, the Folger Shake-
speare Library Poetry Book Award, two National
Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, and the
Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Po-
etry Society of America. Derricotte not only
works to improve her own writing but is also a
cofounder of Cave Canem, the first workshop for
African-American poets. As her voice continues
to develop, only the future will determine the
significance of Derricotte’s work on the African-
American literary canon.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Rowell, Charles. “Beyond Our Lives: An Interview
with Toi Derricotte.” Callaloo 14, no. 3 (Summer
2003): 654–664.
Cassandra ParenteDessa Rose Sherley Anne Williams (1986)
Sherley Anne Williams is best known for Dessa
Rose, a novel based on the fictional meeting of
two historical figures: a pregnant black woman
who helped lead a slave uprising while chained
in a coffle and a North Carolina white woman
who gave sanctuary to slaves. As their lives be-
come entangled (their unexpected friendship
made possible by the latter’s painfully evolving
consciousness regarding slavery, patriarchy, andDessa Rose 137