“Not a heartbeat, but a moan”: Nicole Sealey

Nicole Sealey’s collection of poetry has an interesting range to it. Her poems move from ones about lynching to the documentary Paris is Burning, a documentary about Drag Shows in NYC and their influence on the scene in general. The interviewer feels that this is her strength, her ability to flow seamlessly from one topic to a next and yet keep the collection as one work instead of a few different poems spread through a collection.

Key Takeaways:

• The second book of Nicole Sealey’s, Ordinary Beast, manages to perfectly a mix of heartbreaking and the hilarious.
• In the opinion of Nicole Sealey, wrting poem is less daunting than making a book.
• The influences in writing poems are Catherine Barnett, Lucille Clifton, Andrea Cohen, Martha Collins, Brigit Pegeen Kelly, Yusef Komunyakaa, Li-Young Lee, Larry Levis, John Murillo, Marilyn Nelson.

“Nicole Sealey’s second book, Ordinary Beast, manages to perfectly blend the heartbreaking and the hilarious — often in a single stanza.”

Read more: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/review/not-heartbeat-moan-nicole-sealey