Wanda Coleman

“I have yet to kill anyone—I have exhibited great restraint.”

Wanda Coleman (Nov. 13, 1946 – Nov. 22, 2013) is the author of Bathwater Wine (Black Sparrow Press, 1998), winner of the 1999 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. A former medical secretary, magazine editor, journalist and scriptwriter, Coleman has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation for her poetry.

Coleman was also a bronze-medal finalist for the 2001 National Book Award for Poetry for Mercurochrome. Photo Credit: Lynda Koolish. Read more about Ms. Coleman at The Poetry Foundation.

“Wanda Why Aren’t You Dead“ from Wicked Enchantment: Selected Poems by Wanda Coleman (Black Sparrow)