The Black Feminine Mystique is a poetry collection by William E. Waters exploring Black womanhood across history, culture, mythology, family, struggle, achievement, beauty, and identity.
About the Collection
The collection considers Black women as historical actors, cultural figures, family members, symbols, creators, and individuals whose lives resist reduction to stereotype. Waters draws together personal, historical, cultural, and mythic registers to examine how Black womanhood has been represented, constrained, celebrated, and lived.
Within Waters’s larger body of work, The Black Feminine Mystique broadens his examination of race and American life by centering gender, beauty, identity, strength, memory, and cultural inheritance.
Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award Recognition
The Black Feminine Mystique was a Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award finalist. The collection was published by AuthorHouse in December 2014.
Major Themes
- Black womanhood and identity
- History, culture, and mythology
- Family, memory, and inheritance
- Beauty, representation, and stereotype
- Struggle, achievement, and resilience
- Race, gender, and American life
Related Writing on Ezwwaters.com
Related work on the site includes the early title post The Black Feminine Mystique, “Ida B. Wells: The Black Woman Crusader Against White Knights”, and “A Statue for the Unknown Slave Woman?”
Publication Details
Author: William E. Waters
Genre: Poetry collection
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Publication: December 12, 2014
Paperback: 78 pages
Distinction: Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award finalist
ISBN-10: 1496958748
ISBN-13: 9781496958747
Also known as: William Eric Waters
William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters 