Marilyn Nelson

Presents fifteen interlinked sonnets to pay tribute to Emmitt Till, a fourteen-year-old African American boy who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 for whistling at a while woman, and whose murderers were acquitted.

A Wreath for Emmett Till

Jeni Enjaian

This tiny little book completely blew me away. Nelson weaves words together through a series of Petrachan sonnets, a poetic form with quite a long history, to create a moving wreath of words that pack a verbal punch on every page. Nelson wasted not a word in each of the 15 sonnets. I shivered throughout the entire reading of this book because of her powerful imagery.

I highly recommend this book.

A Wreath for Emmett Till

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