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Black Goat is an independent poetry imprint of Akashic Books created and curated by award-winning Nigerian author Chris Abani (author of Becoming Abigail and Song for Night). Black Goat is committed to publishing well-crafted poetry, and will also focus on experimental or thematically challenging work. The series aims to create a proportional representation of female, African, and other non-American poets.

Award-winning poet Kwame Dawes explores the insidious nature of power and the limits of protest for Chris Abani's Black Goat poetry series.

"As someone who professes to be a writer, I'm struck dumb by Kwame Dawes's pinpoint and devastating lyricism and the unflinching assurance of each and every stanza. These gems, threaded with mesmerizing narrative, exhibit both unbridled imagination and a lean technical mastery, a combination that Dawes's fans rely on. This is the kind of work writers strive for. This is Dawes at the pinnacle of what he does."
--Patricia Smith, author of Teahouse of the Almighty

Gomer's Song is a contemporary reinterpretation of a Bible story. Gomer, a harlot, was the wife of the Old Testament prophet Hosea. But even after marriage to Hosea, she refused to conform to her expected role. In Gomer, poet Kwame Dawes finds the subject for a beautiful contemporary exploration on the cost of arriving at freedom with an uneasy grace.

Dawes examines the insidious nature of power, the expectations of gender roles, and the limits of protest. Through Gomer's journey, we are asked to consider how each one of us must articulate not only our own defiance, but tally the costs of earning our individuality. Gomer's Song is a great fable for finding our humanity in the confusion of a post-9/11 world. This is tender a book with profound lyrical insights.

Kwame Dawes is an award-winning Ghanaian-born Jamaican author of several books of poetry, nonfiction, and fiction (including his debut novel, She's Gone, published by Akashic in 2007). He teaches at the University of South Carolina, where he is Distinguished Poet in Residence and director of the USC Arts Institute and the SC Poetry Initiative. Dawes is the programmer for the annual Jamaican Calabash International Literary Festival.