Black Sunday

by Benjamin Myers

Overview

Black Sunday transports readers into the world of the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma where desperation, darkness, and despair reign, though hope lingers, too. The series of sonnets follows four characters through their experiences during one of the most trying times in our nation's history. In addition, the long, dramatic poem, "Faith Healer," gives readers a glimpse into a child's view of these historical events. These accessible, crafted, and wholly moving poems remind readers of the importance and power of love in the darkest times.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781942956631
Publisher:	Lamar University Press
Publication date:	01/31/2019
Pages:	102
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.24(d)

Editorial Reviews

Benjamin Myers brings the full array of his powers to this gorgeous collection: his elegance and erudition; his gifts as a storyteller; his wise, unsentimental, tender heart. Through the voices of people who lived it, Myers bears witness to some of the most iconic scenes of the Dust Bowl: black choking dust storms, foreclosures, cow killings, rabbit drives, the hope and despair of hard lives lived in a devastated land: “a land, like me,” as one witness says,” torn open to its God.” Enter these pages, and you’ll know anew—know for the first time—what happened here.

—Rilla Askew, author of Harpsong.

“Every farmer knows you carry what you lose/one season to the next,” Benjamin Myers writes. In richly textured and deeply imagined lines, Black Sunday carries the lives and hopes lost in the tribulations of the Dust Bowl years, when people and animals alike breathed in and spat out and choked on the land they had once lived on. Black Sunday is history come alive.

—Andrew Hudgins, author of Saints and Strangers.

From the Publisher