Swimming Pittsburgh

Daniel J. Wideman takes Pittsburgh's famed Three Rivers as inspiration for an innovative collection of poems that deftly weave a tapestry tracing municipal, cultural, and family history. Wideman's own nomadicism informs an ambitious quest--from the historic black neighborhood of Homewood to the fraught waters of a slaving port in 18th Century West Africa--to uncover the meaning of "Home." Elizabeth Alexander, National Poet Laureate at the Obama Inauguration, proclaims "Daniel Wideman's voice is sober, intelligent, and wise.  The poems in this fine and welcome debut explore what family tales reveal and conceal."