Hardcover of the ROPES 10th Anniversary Edition (2024) by Derrick Harriell, Ph.D. 

"Promised Jim Crow/don’t go in the ring,/that the language of/the fourteenth amendment lies/ within those ropes." Long before Jackie Robinson bravely entered major league hatred, African Americans tied cultural pride, anxiety and politick to angry fists buffered with cotton. Derrick Harriell has mined the human history of lives perpetually in fight and woven a gutbucket stench of ghetto wail and back alley holler survival. . .

--Quraysh Ali Lansana, author of Mystic Turf and Our Difficult Sunlight: A Guide to Poetry, Literacy & Social Justice in Classroom & Community

In 4 rounds, Derrick Harriell tours us through the cultural history of boxing, from Mike Tyson and Joe Frazier to one of the first African American pugilists, writing from 1855. These richly detailed persona poems are spoken by boxers and also the journalists, cutmen, and girlfriends who surround the ring. Harriell's nuanced ear conveys not just the intimacies of a sport but the intimacies of the human spirit. Ropes is a knock out.

--Beth Ann Fennelly, former Director, MFA Program, University of Mississippi and author of Tender Hooks and Open House