Waters, William

Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass Remembrance of Things Past and Present

2001 0-7734-3420-8
Co-winner of the 1998 Mellen Poetry Press Prize Contest This epic poem relates slavery back to historic an current African practices which were aggravated and exploited by Europeans. Contains material on the sexual exploitation of blacks by whites during slavery and on the artificial color categories that emerged from this and that were used to buttress segregation and racism. Strong use of repetition to support anger and irony.

Lost Children

2001 0-7734-3430-5
Personal poems on circumstances springing from the poet’s life. John Waterfield studied Classics and English literature at Christ Church, Oxford, receiving a doctorate in 1979. He published his translation of Rilke’s Duino Elegies with Mellen in 1999. He lives and teaches in England.