A native of New Orleans and a former poet laureate of Louisiana, Osbey has summoned up a magical, beguiling, sometimes chilling and appalling portrait of the myriad chapters of New Orleans, Southern and hemispheric history. Her dazzling narratives offer apertures into desire, death and remembrance, often through the voices of neglected and abused citizens.
The essays in this collection examine Osbey’s essays and poetry collections, situating them within greater traditions of African American women’s writing, blues music and West African religious traditions and Catholicism. The chapters are punctuated throughout with Osbey’s own reflections on her work.
Summoning Our Saints is edited by John Wharton Lowe, the Barbara Methvin Professor of English in UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.