Undertaker’s Daughter

Toi Derricotte is an award-winning poet whose work tackles difficult and universal subject matter such as violence, racism, motherhood, and self-identity through an autobiographical lens. She is the author of The Undertaker’s Daughter and four previous poetry collections,including Tender, winner of the Paterson PoetryPrize. She is the recipient of two Pushcart Prizesand fellowships from the National Endowmentfor the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation,among other honors. Derricotte is cofounder ofCave Canem, professor emerita at the Universityof Pittsburgh, and a chancellor of the Academy ofAmerican Poets.

Poems that stick with you like a song that won't stop repeating itself in your brain, poems whose cadences burrow into your bloodstream, orchestrating your breathing long before their sense attaches its hooks to your heart.