“Whatever Remembers Us: An Anthology of Alabama Poetry,” edited by Sue Brannan Walker and J. William Chambers Negative Capability Press, Mobile, $30 hardback, $24 soft cover.



This latest offering of Negative Capability Press in Mobile is an anthology of poems about Alabama, how it is remembered by both current poets and those of yesteryear, according to one of the books editors, J. William Chambers of Athens.

“In this anthology we present a wide range of voices in telling Alabama experiences,” said Chambers. “The poets gathered here collectively engage our senses, emotion, and intellect through simple songs, to light verse, to traditional and modern verse. Each poet gives us some knowledge of the complexities of human nature, its tragedies, its sufferings, its excitements, and its joys, which characterize how we remember Alabama.”

There are a few poems in the anthology by such literary lions as Langston Hughes, Ray Bradbury and James Dickey; renowned non-residents such as Rita Dove, Sonia Sanchez, Marge Piercy and Miller Williams; and by contemporary scholar/poets such as Rodney Jones, R.T. Smith, Hank Lazar, Dwight Eddins, Andrew Hudgins, Peter Huggins and Thomas Rabbit, to mention only a few.

But the majority of the poems are by Alabamians—some nationally known like Bonnie Roberts, Charles Ghigna, Anne George and Eugene Walters—and those yet undiscovered, such as The News Courier reporter Karen Middleton. They write of the experience of living and loving in Alabama.

Sue Walker, who was named Poet Laureate of Alabama in 2003 and conceived the idea of the anthology soon after, said she realized early that the book was a larger project than she had anticipated.

“I asked J. William Chambers to join me in editing the anthology,” Walker said. “He is someone I respect as a poet and editor, and I asked him if he would join me in fashioning an Alabama anthology of poetry. He said yes, and we set to work. He had edited ‘Elk River Review’ for a number of years, and I had edited and published the literary journal ‘Negative Capability’ for 20 years, so we both had experience with editing and publishing books.

“We put out a call for poems on my Web site and in the newsletters of various organizations such as the Alabama Writer’s Conclave and the Alabama State Poetry Society. We passed out flyers at conferences, and in the course of a year, word of mouth spread news that poets were invited to submit poems for the anthology. The entire project from conception to finished product took about a year and a half.

“The book took shape as we received and read poems. We particularly liked the epigraph from John Ciardi’s ‘Minus One’ that began Richard Beyer’s poem, ‘Whatever remembers us, finally is enough. If anything remembers us, something is love.’ Little needs to be said beyond that. This anthology is a representation of diverse voices, and this remembrance is love.”

Retired Athens State University Professor of English Penne Laubenthal, whose work is also featured in the anthology, has written:

“Whatever Remembers Us” is a democratic collection about unity and diversity, rivers and forests, mountains and beaches, about sunrise and sunset, about the backroads and highways and the people who travel them and live beside them. It is a passionate paean to Alabama.”

To purchase a copy of “Whatever Remembers Us,” write: Negative Capability Press, 62 Ridgelawn Drive East, Mobile, Ala., 36608. Price is $30 for hardback and $24 for soft cover. Include $3.50 for shipping and handling.