Book Launch - No More Worlds to Conquer by Brian Gilmore

A history of Black poets in Washington, DC, reveals how they have reflected and transformed American cultural discourse

Washington, DC, has long been home to a dynamic and vibrant African American literary community, despite often being overshadowed by the literary worlds of New York and Chicago. In No More Worlds to Conquer, the local poet Brian Gilmore uncovers the buried legacy of Black poets in Washington. He traces the literary life and politics of Black poets in the nation's capital since Paul Laurence Dunbar, showing how well-known American poets, such as Sterling Brown and Jean Toomer, were mentored in DC by poets like May Miller and Georgia Douglas Johnson and making the case for the city as a center of American literature.Gilmore draws on meticulous research, personal interviews, and his own deep knowledge of the local literary community to connect generations of writers and document a poetic community that transcends…