Akua Lezli Hope

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“Them Gone” is a homegoing of homegirl reminiscence, a family reunion in verse and sound that sings a personal and public history alive and into our hands. Akua Lezli Hope’s poems recount journeys from South Africa to Paris to Jamaica to New York and parts between, leading us on a Black woman’s story, seasoned with poignant observation and a wise-worn search for truth. Wade into the wave of these pages and emerge transported to new, glimmered shores of universal truth!” –Tyehimba Jess, author of Leadbelly and Olio

A third generation New Yorker, firstborn, wisdom seeker, Akua Lezli Hope is a lifetime member of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. A Cave Canem fellow, she is the recipient of  fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, and Ragdale US-Africa. She is the author of two collections of poetry,Them Gone (Word Works, 2018) and Embouchure: Poems on Jazz and Other Musics (ArtFarm Press, 1995), winner of the Writer’s Digest poetry book award. Her poem “Metis Emits” won the Science Fiction Poetry Association’s short poem award. Her work appears in many literary magazines and national anthologies, including The 100 Best African American Poems and DARK MATTER, the first anthology of African American Science Fiction. She is working on her grant-supported project, “Words on Wheels,” creating poetry art cards for the frail elderly in her community. 

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