GLR January-February 2025

Carl Phillips “does not use a hundred-watt word unless it is the right word and the best word in a given line.” Of Rorem, who published a host of diaries over the years, he writes: “It might be more accurate to say that his writing is likely to survive in toto as a body of literature read and discussed for years to come, despite its somewhat repetitive nature, while his music is likely to be remembered in bits and pieces, with much of it fading out over time.” As someone who has interviewed and written about Rorem, I would have to agree. Contreras’ reviews are peppered with references to dozens of other poets he knows and loves. Occasionally he parades his familiarity with these poets a bit gratuitously, and some times his prose reaches too far for a sense of grandeur, as when he calls Samuel R. Delaney “the Black gay ambulatory mon ument of the urban literary universe.” But in general Contr eras has interesting and perceptive things to say, and he says them in a clear, straightforward manner. Case in point: about John Ashbery and his “glittering word-storm,” he writes: “His way of writing was a breath of energy to many poets of the last half of the 20th Century. Having felt his infused word spray puffing into their ears, some ran to their desks, pen in hand, while others fled gibbering into the shrubbery. They all still do these same things, which speaks to the breadth of his influence.” There are many other small felicities in these essays. For example, in a piece about Gabriela Mistral, the Nobel Prize winning Chilean poet, Contreras spends several paragraphs comparing four translations of her poem “The Foreigner.” He contrasts one translator’s apt choice of words to “the technically purer but boring” choices of another. In another review, he un abashedly praises the book cover: “How many book covers make you cry?” And in another, he pokes fun at the “outgassing bayous of critical technical English.” An especially strong entry is his “Danger of Uncontrolled Poetry,” a 2021 essay that takes to task the censoring of literary expression in an effort to maintain political correctness. “This word-burning must stop,” he writes. “Are we to become a silent society, publishing nothing that a nine-year-old Baptist might not enjoy, out of fear of causing offense? ... It’s a matter of deny ing adult readers a full range of literary experiences in order to avoid controversy.” The second half of the book gives us Contreras’ complete email correspondence with Reginald Shepherd, a gay African American poet who died in 2008 at age 45. “There are no pal lid stones in Reginald’s lapidarium,” he writes. Shepherd “had no time for the poetry of pathological personalism, he recog nized that below a certain point economy of expression becomes chastity of imagination.” These exchanges, which spanned the last seventeen months of Shepherd’s life, should prove valuable to a future biographer of the poet, whom Contreras calls “a pure shining intelligence.” What Contreras says about one book he reviewed—“there is little sense of wasted language or too much time trotting on a particular hobby-horse”—aptly applies to his own method in these essays and reviews. Self-published or not, this is a solid little anthology by a solid, workmanlike reviewer. _______________________________________________________ Philip Gambone’s latest book, Zigzag , is a collection of short stories

A NNE C HARLES Exchanging Families MAMA A Queer Black Woman’s Story of a Family Lost and Found by Nikkya Hargrove Algonquin Books. 228 pages, $29. I N THE PROLOGUE to Nikkya Hargrove’s compelling memoir, readers learn that Hargrove’s mother’s nickname for her is “Mama,” which explains the book’s main title. The subtitle provides additional information about who Mama is and foreshadows narrative developments though the book, which explores what it means for a family to be “lost” or “found.” While the book opens with the fourteen-year-old narrator and her family visiting her mother Lisa Eleazer in prison, the main narrative begins ten years later with the birth of Jonathan, Eleazer’s fourth child, born prematurely and testing positive for drugs. Four months later, Hargrove’s mother is found dead in a halfway house at the age of 42 while still on parole. Her cause of death is chronic heart disease. Although the action of much of the memoir focuses on Har grove’s struggles to establish a stable home for her half-brother and herself, the writer’s relationship with her mother haunts the narrative. We learn of moments of tenderness, such as when Eleazor places her child-daughter between her legs and does her hair. On Hargrove’s 25th birthday, her mother babysits her brother so that her daughter can go out to celebrate. A striking show of support occurs when Hargrove comes out in eighth grade to some members of her homophobic family. In this mo ment, her mother breaks the shocked silence by declaring, “Mama, I will love you and will always love you, no matter what. ... You’re my daughter and I’ll be by your side forever.” (Later in the book, Hargrove mentions coming out at age fif teen.) Other scenes of Eleazer’s nurturing and care are presented sparingly, providing a glimpse of the unrealized promise that marks this mother-daughter relationship. Nevertheless, Elea zor’s presence still hovers several years after her death, as Har grove prepares for her wedding and wonders what flowers her mother would have chosen. While motherhood is examined from different perspectives throughout, in the second two parts of the book the emphasis on the “found” family emerges, and oppositional forces come into play. As Hargrove fights to gain custody of Jonathan, the shortcomings of the legal system are exposed. The failings of Child Protective Services are highlighted by the agency’s inad equate response to the reappearance and sudden demands of Jonathan’s biological father. The revelation that Jonathan’s trou bles at school are caused by his autism point to a deficiency in the education system. Anti-lesbian prejudice surfaces when Har grove and her wife invite Jonathan’s classmates to a birthday party and none of them attend. Chosen family members form an important part of Har grove’s “found” family. Hair stylist Perry encourages Hargrove to start dating after she breaks up with her privileged white

about the lives of older gay men. January–February 2025

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