Oklahoma Black poet, Josie Craig Berry, published her first (extant) poem in 1918, when she was 29. She also wrote a weekly literary column for Oklahoma City's The Black Dispatch newspaper from 1937-1941. Berry continued writing poetry as late as 1975, when she was 87 years old. This is the first collection of Berry's poetry, a poetry that agitates for civil rights, insists on the dignity of Black people, comments on contemporaneous events, and explores the culture and landscape of Oklahoma. The Collected Poems of Josie Craig Berry includes a biographical introduction and an annotated bibliography. With this collection, Josie Craig Berry will be recognized as an accomplished poet, a public intellectual, a literary powerhouse, and a woman whose contributions to Black literature and Oklahoma literature are immeasurable.
