Melba Joyce Boyd is the author of six books of poetry, the most recent being The Province of Literary Cats (Detroit: Past Tents Press, 2002). Her poetry has been translated into German, Italian and Spanish. She is the co-editor of Abandon Automobile: Detroit City Poetry 2001. In 1994, Wayne State University Press published Discarded Legacy: Politics and Poetics in the Life of Frances E. W. Harper, 1825-1911 which has been widely reviewed and acclaimed. In 1996, Boyd completed a documentary film, The Black Unicorn: Dudley Randall and Broadside Press and her biography, Wrestling with the Muse: Dudley Randall and Broadside Press, will be released by Columbia University Press in December 2003. She is presently Professor of Africana studies at Wayne State University in Detroit.