I'm pleased to announce the release of
Sleeping Under the Tree of Life, a collection of poetry and stories by Sheree
Renée Thomas, as the fiftieth volume in Aqueduct's Conversation Pieces series.
Sleeping Under the Tree of Life evokes the realm of ancestral knowledge
with a deep respect for the natural world, a love of language, and an
invitation—for survival, and asks: Who survives without being transformed?
Beneath luminous layers of imagery and mythology, science and nature,
fantasy and the recounting of history, is the grace and tenderness of a
poet's heart, the unwavering gaze of an oracle's vision, and the dreamlike
whimsy of a storyteller's mind. Hope, love, and hard truths spring from
these pages of a writer whose imagination conjures an unforgettable
journey. Readers enter these poems and stories the way some souls enter
church, a quiet garden, or a stand of trees—for rest, for the blessing of
silence and reverie, for beauty if not redemption.
Last week
Publishers Weekly gave the book a starred review: "The lyrical gifts of Thomas, editor of the celebrated Dark Matter
anthologies, are on full display in this collection of poetry and
short fiction. Her poems are imbued with rich, sensual imagery and
range over subjects mundane, fantastical, and somewhere in between:
the memory of a mother braiding her daughter’s hair in “Rootwork”;
an oracle in the form of a homeless woman whose “mismatch clothes/
cover robes that got wings” in “Visitation of the Oracle at McKain
Street”; and the mythological Arachne, “Star weaver of tears,” in
“Arachne Star” and “Arachne on the Rebound.” She invokes the rhythms
of African-American ring shouts and the dense, humid atmosphere of
the American South. Her stories include reinventions of mythology,
such as Medusa and Arachne ambushing the goddess Athena in revenge
in “Arachne & Medusa Jump Athena,” and haunting modern folktales
about women with their roots in rivers (in “River, Clap Your Hands”)
and swamp trees (in “Tree of the Forest Seven Bells”), with
references to recent natural disasters and human-created pollution.
Thomas’s skill with poetry and prose is remarkable, and even the
shortest poems in this volume contain ideas and images that will
linger in the reader’s mind."
The collection has also received a good deal of advance praise:
"
Sleeping Under the Tree of Life is a feat of literary
conjuration. Poetry, prose combine in a mythic discourse
that combines African, Indigenous, and European tropes
to explore the power and plaints of woman hood; the
thin line between life and death; the power of the Fates;
the volatility of nature; a desire for and the achievement
of transformation.... The texts here offer a profound
understanding of the Black American South—where trees
are sources of shade and succor or memorials to humanity's
murderous traits. And it is a sly portrait of Memphis,
Tennessee, Thomas' hometown. This is a bold book full of
taller than tall tales and delicate lyrics-where birth, death,
sex, magic and discovery walk the same path and haunt the
writer's dreams. Join her on this journey and find out what
it is like to sleep under that tree."
—Patricia Spears Jones, author of
A Lucent Fire: New and
Selected,
Painkiller,
Femme du Monde, and
The Weather That Kills
"These are wise women poems, country lush, bound by myth and
science. Thomas's exquisite language inhabits constellations, delta
crossroads and the deepest forest to explore our collective
troubles. Thomas is also a master storyteller weaving a devilish braid of
ancestral reclamation; of sirens, goddesses and elders wrapped in new world
grit and a modern hoodoo evocative of the pastoralism of Jean Toomer. This
powerful collection is a call to 'save us from ruin.'"
—Jacqueline Johnson, author of
A Woman's Season
"'Out of the mouth of this holler,' Sheree Renée Thomas'
Sleeping Under the
Tree of Life springs to life—to give us life. Continuing the work she set
out with her Dark Matter anthologies and her first collection, Shotgun
Lullabies, Thomas, in this pristine, poised narrative of our beginnings,
extends and expands the dialogic paradigm of an art form and genre the
world is finally catching up to, to go beyond what Michael McDonald and
James Ingram sing— 'Yah Mo Be There!'—to take us back to the future of an
Africa that said/that says, as the Bantu— 'Nommo Be There!' In
Sleeping
Under the Tree of Life, Sheree Renée Thomas collages together a narrative
of necessity where her full literary powers and prowess are on full display
like a Dogon cup from an ancient river where we drink in the magic of
winged words necessitating change, each poem and prose piece not lulling us
to sleep—but giving us life, and making sure we stay WOKE!"
—Tony Medina, author of
Broke Baroque and
An Onion of
Wars
"Sheree R. Thomas is a hoodoo conjure women.
Sleeping Under the Tree of
Life is a book of story and poem incantations. Thomas calls on the
ancestors, the spirits, and our natural Mississippi mud/ blood history to
talk to the future. She tasks, thrills, and twists our minds. Her word
magic feels so good in my mouth, I have to jump up and speak her blues,
jazz, and warrior woman sass out loud!
Sleeping Under the Tree of Life is a
book to read again and again and again!"
—Andrea Hairston, author of
Redwood
and Wildfire and
Will Do Magic for Small Change
"Sheree Renée Thomas gives us a whirlpool of poem and story, a 'wild and
strangeful breed' of cosmology that maps each star from Machu Pichu to
Congo Square, from Legba to Medusa. Here in these pages is a ringshout
around a tree of brown woman hands and riverbent fantasy, all quilted up in
'indigo/and black silt/ twisting the thick strands/ as if starting a slow
fire.' The baptism awaits, the water is living, and we all rise with the
tide of these epistles from such a wondrous, ancient, future-bound poet."
—Tyehimba Jess, author of
Olio and Leadbelly
"
Sleeping Under the Tree of Life is a collection of tales and poetry
reflecting the mythical origins of life inside the dream of 'trees, rivers,
stars, blood.' Through Thomas' words every day birth, desire, death becomes
a beautiful, dream-like dance full of magic, light and dark. We are shown
that things are more than they seem and under the most common skin lies
infinite power." —Linda D. Addison, award-winning author of "How to
Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend"
"This collection of vivid, intense and artful speculative poetry and short
fiction is a journey through beautiful, treacherous landscapes
simultaneously ancient, futuristic and of-the-moment, inhabited by deities,
demiurges, and drylongso conjurefolk. These guides, guardians and
shape-shifting survivors illuminate Thomas' meditations on the joys and
ravages of history and the resilience of love. Sleep beneath this Tree,
dream these dreams, and arise changed."—Ama Patterson
'
In Sleeping Under the Tree of Life, Sheree Renée Thomas
finds the mythic grandeur in human frailty and apocalyptic storms. This is
a book of goddesses and magic, of songs mournful and joyful, of restless
trees and falling skies, told in a voice like a river's hypnotic
rush. You'll welcome the webs these poems and stories weave."
—Mike Allen, three-time Rhysling Award winner, Nebula and Shirley Jackson Award
finalist, and editor of Clockwork Phoenix
"
Sleeping Under The Tree of Life is a powerful invocation by a literary
rootwoman working with both hands, a fusion of prose and poetry that brings
to mind Toomer's Cane or Jones' Corregidora, works graced with lyrical
riffs like little blue bottles glistening in the sun. With this work,
Sheree Thomas has attained a new level of artistic maturity, her unique
voice, a Wanganegressian fusion of contemporary and the traditional,
singing out in a mastery of craft and vision that adorns every page. Her
poetry claims the reader long before prose narratives are introduced in a
seamless weave working that boundary/fusion of genres where new aesthetics
are born. It is everything a work of art should be, a challenging
engagement with the human condition that will try your soul with moments of
astounding grace. Sleeping Under the Tree of Life represents a new level of
craft, vision and achievement for a consummate artist and cultural
icon. With this one, Sherée Thomas' place is assured. When great soul meets
great work, what you get is a thing of wonder."
—Arthur Flowers, author of
I See the Promised Land,
Mojo Rising, and
Another Good Loving Blues
"In
Sleeping Under the tree of Life, Sheree Renée Thomas has created a
gorgeously mind-altering collection of poetry and story. She riffs off
history like a Jazz master, while invoking a poly-rhythmic present shot
through with prophesy. With pulsating word alchemy, she spins luminous
imagery, astounding characters, and deep-sea insights. I say, this book
will put a spell on you—change you, and rearrange you. Read it right now,
twice." —Pan Morigan, composer,
Wild Blue and Castles of Gold
Sleeping Under the Tree of Life is available now in print and e-book editions through
Aqueduct's site, and will soon be available elsewhere.
