Coming March 30, 2022. Poetry collection by Gary Copeland Lilley. Lilley's collection addresses flashpoints in African American history including the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898 and Hurricane Katrina. Second edition with new poems. “Poem after poem, book after book, Gary Lilley explores the underwater depths of the blues, deep sea diving beneath the city corners and tangled histories of this country's map to tell us where we've been and how we got there. Thank you for this journey, Mr Lilley. Thank you for this new testament to the power of the unvarnished, raw voice of our natural selves.” --Tyehimba Jess, author of Leadbelly “HIGH WATER EVERYWHERE is an odyssey, a love story, and book of nightmares. Gary Lilley is the poet we need in our times—fearless, worldly, and a music-magician. This is poetry you will not shake off, nor want to shake off. I read it from cover to cover, backward and forward, and found myself astonished at least once on every page. This is enduring work by one of our best living poets.” --Laura Kasischke, Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry Gary Copeland Lilley is your griot’s favorite griot. Your poet’s favorite poet. In High Water Everywhere, our poet shepherds us through tumultuous waters. Sometimes we might find ourselves in the belly of a hog offering with no tomorrow to serve. Other times, we might have a hand in the secular gospel of America’s underbelly. Lilley’s poems build a particular blues world and moves us to face the particulars of the unseen. “Hope is a hammer in the hand that builds / the foundation of the house that can withstand / the storm.” Hurricane Katrina and other Mother Nature disasters are waded through while landing the reader in the belly of a guitar’s favorite howl. Even when the news isn’t what we all prayed for, High Water Everywhere is the house moving us all to embrace the role of being haunted. Gary Copeland Lilley is my favorite poet, and this might be his finest hour. --Derrick Harriell (author of Ropes and Stripper in Wonderland)
