Goodbye, Sweetwater

Dumas, a novelist and short story writer, was accidentally shot and killed by a policeman in 1968. This collection bringing together previously published and unpublished pieces, represents the variety, quality, and texture of his prose. Dumas richly depicts the lives of rural and urban Black Americans, giving equal consideration and depth to the complexity of '60s political activism and the truths of folk knowledge. His attention to language is a sustained exploration of how different forms of English can convey diverse versions of lived experience and knowledge, unsetting conventional categories of value. ISBN 0-938410-59-8: $19.95.