Wanda Coleman facts for kids

Wanda Coleman (born November 13, 1946 – died November 22, 2013) was an important American poet. People often called her "the L.A. Blueswoman" or "the unofficial poet laureate of Los Angeles." This means she was seen as a very important voice for the city through her poems.

About Wanda Coleman

Wanda Evans was born in the Watts area of Los Angeles. She grew up there in the 1950s and 1960s. She was the oldest of four children. Her parents were George and Lewana Evans. Her father moved to Los Angeles from Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1931 because of racial violence in the South. He was a former boxer and a friend of the famous boxer Archie Moore. In Los Angeles, he ran a sign shop and also worked as a janitor at RCA Records. Wanda's mother worked as a seamstress and a housekeeper for famous people like Ronald Reagan.

After finishing John C. Fremont High School in Los Angeles, Wanda went to Los Angeles Valley College. She later transferred to California State University at Los Angeles but did not finish her degree.

Soon after high school, she married Charles Coleman. They had two children, Luanda and Anthony. She later married two more times. Her second marriage brought her a second son, Ian. Her third husband was the poet Austin Straus, whom she married in 1981.

After her first marriage ended, Wanda worked many different jobs to support herself and her children. She was a waitress, a typist, and an editor for a magazine. She even wrote for some men's magazines using the pen name Andrew L. Tate.

From 1981 to 1996, Wanda and her husband Austin Straus hosted a radio show called "Poetry Connexion" on Pacifica Radio. On their show, they talked with many writers, both local and from around the world.

In her writing, whether it was stories, essays, or poems, Wanda Coleman often wrote about characters whose lives showed the unfairness in society. She wanted to bring attention to social problems.

Awards and Recognition

Wanda Coleman received many important awards and honors for her writing. She got special grants from groups like the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. She was also the first person to receive the C.O.L.A. Literary Fellow award from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs in 2003.

Some of her other big achievements include:

• An Emmy Award for writing in a Daytime Drama. She was the first African American woman to win this award.
• The 1999 Lenore Marshall Prize for her book of poems called Bathwater Wine.
• Being a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award for her book Mercurochrome.
• Being a finalist to become the California poet laureate in 2005.

In 2020, Black Sparrow Press, her longtime publisher, released a collection of her best poems called Wicked Enchantment: Selected Poems. This book includes poems from all her previous works published by Black Sparrow Press between 1983 and 2005. The famous author Mary Karr said about the book, "Wicked Enchantment has words to crack you open and heal you where it counts—hateful and hilarious, heartbroken and hellbent."

This new collection quickly became very popular. A writer for the New Yorker magazine, Dan Chiasson, wrote that Wanda Coleman was "One of the greatest poets ever to come out of L.A." He also said she "shaped the city's literary scene like few before her." He noted that her poems, especially her sonnets, were fast-paced and inspired by American blues and jazz music.

Another writer, Lizzy LeRud, wrote that "Today, Coleman's significance is unquestioned." She added that in Wicked Enchantment, readers would find Coleman's strong challenges to racism in America and her unique way of writing. Her work encourages us to face unfairness with honesty and care, just like she did.

By 2022, Wanda Coleman had published fifteen poetry books, two books that mixed poetry and stories, two short story collections, one novel, and two nonfiction books.

Books by Wanda Coleman

• Heart First Into This Ruin: The Complete American Sonnets. Black Sparrow Press. 2022.
• The Love Project. (with Austin Straus). Red Hen Press. 2014.
• Ostinato Vamps. Pitt Poetry Series, 2003–2004. ISBN: 9780822958338 (This book was a finalist for the National Book Awards).
• Heavy Daughter Blues: Poems & Stories 1968-1986. Black Sparrow Press. 1987.
• Imagoes. Black Sparrow Press. 1983. ISBN: 9780876855096

Smaller Collections and Special Editions

• Moon Cherries. Sore Dove Press. 2005.
• Wanda Coleman: Greatest Hits 1966-2003. Pudding House Publications. 2004.
• American Sonnets. Woodland Pattern. 1994.
• The Dicksboro Hotel & Other Travels. Ambrosia Press. 1989.

See also

• In Spanish: Wanda Coleman para niños