and the creek don't rise by Melanie Clay
2021 MRBA Winner
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"Architectures of a liberating imagination, and the creek don't rise is an invitation to bring your soul to a ceremony as Clay, in this book, is offering nothing less than all of hers."
- Tongo Eisen-Martin
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"At its incendiary core, "and the creek don't rise" is an origin story, one which hacks away at aeons of myth and misogynoir, and situates the Black woman, as is metaphysically her due as the Source and thus the creator, 'balancing history and progress in my lap.’"
- Jubi Arriola-Headley
Meilani Clay is a writer, mama, and educator from Oakland, CA. Her work has appeared in Nomadic Press’ Patrice Lumumba: An Anthology of Writers on Black Liberation and in the online literary journal The Ana. A graduate of Howard University, the University of San Francisco’s Urban Education and Social Justice program, and a current MFA Poetry candidate at SFSU, Meilani aspires to be in school forever, to bridge worlds with her words, and to one day build forts out of books written by Black folks.
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