My Black Angel, Blues Poems and Portraits

My Black Angel, Blues Poems and Portraits pairs the blues poems of Kim Addonizio with woodcut effigies based on images of a number of significiant blues musicians with the intent of creating "duets" of image and text, each spread becoming a visual composition and each element amplifying the other.

Created by Charles D. Jones, the woodcuts are in direct response to the poetry. The limited edition book features 24 poems and 26 images printed directly from wooden blocks on Hahnem hle's Biblio paper, with additional images for the delux edition printed onto Sekishu, a fine Japanese paper. Jones uses the Optima font, printing from photopolymer plates.

KIM ADDONIZIO lives in Oakland, California. She is the author of five books of poetry, including Tell Me (BOA Editions), which was a National Book Award Finalist. Her most recent collection is Lucifer at the Starlite (W.W. Norton). She has two books on writing, also from Norton: The Poet’s Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry (with Dorianne Laux) and Ordinary Genius: A Guide for the Poet Within. A selected poems compilation, Two Losers Stand on a Corner, was published in Arabic by Kalima Press. In the Box Called Pleasure, a short story collection, was published by FC2. Addonizio has also authored two novels, Little Beauties and My Dreams Out in the Street (Simon & Schuster).