Poet Wanda Coleman Needs Your Help

Wanda Coleman, widely considered the "unofficial poet laureate of Los Angeles," has been battling an upper respiratory infection since September; she has been hospitalized more than once.

According to an email from Richard Modiano, director of Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center, Coleman had to cancel several appearances this fall due to illness, and recently went back into the hospital again. She is scheduled to be released early this week but will need additional care after she is discharged.

Because Coleman's outpatient care will not be covered by insurance, she is asking for assistance.

Donation checks can be sent to: Wanda Coleman, P.O. Box 571, Lancaster, CA 93534.

From The Academy of American Poets:

Born in 1946, Wanda Coleman grew up in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. She 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. Her other books of poetry include Mercurochrome: New Poems (2001);Native in a Strange Land: Trials & Tremors (1996); Hand Dance (1993); African Sleeping Sickness (1990); A War of Eyes & Other Stories (1988); Heavy Daughter Blues: Poems & Stories 1968-1986 (1988); and Imagoes (1983). She has also written Mambo Hips & Make Believe: A Novel (Black Sparrow Press, 1999) and Jazz and Twelve O'Clock Tales: New Stories (2008).