Sherman J. Alexie, Jr. was born in October 1966. A Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, he grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, WA, about 50 miles northwest of Spokane. Born hydrocephalic (water on the brain), Alexie underwent brain operation at the age of six. He survived the surgery,

Angry, Dark, Death, Deconstructive, Dreamy, In-your-face, Lyrical, Mythic, Native american fiction, Native american poetry, Pioneering, Playful, Political, Post-colonialism, Rhythmic, Rough, Spiritual, Tragic, Tribal

With titles like "Flower, Fist, and Bestial Wail," "Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions, and General Tales of Ordinary Madness," and "Notes of a Dirty Old Man," Charles Bukowski's work is still the stuff that teenage poet-boys read on the bus. Bukowski is a movement-less poet: not a Beat or a Confes

Beat poetry, Beats, Gritty, In-your-face, Masculine, Minimal, Smoky, Wise assy

The poet Karl Shapiro, in his introduction to the 1961 American publication of Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer," said, "Morally I regard Miller as a holy man'Gandhi with a penis." This was Miller's first book, and its pages were rife with full, frontal descriptions of sexual joy and despair. He ha

Beats, Bombast, Ebullient, Ecstatic, Erotic, Improvised, In-your-face, Manic, Modernist literature, Overflowing, Perverse, Post-war literature, Sincere

"Waaaake up!" yells DJ Mister Senor Love Daddy at the start of Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" -- a call to awareness that seems to be the message of all Lee's movies. Lee isn't interested in forcing any one ideology down his audience's throat; instead, he wants to expose us to the issues that preoc

African american fiction, In-your-face, Political, Urban