me and Nina

 “In me and Nina Monica A. Hand depicts, as Nina Simone did, what it is to be gifted and Black in America. She shifts dynamically through voices and forms homemade, received and re-imagined to conjure the music (and Muses) of art and experience. This is a debut fiercely illuminated by declaration and song.” 

—Terrance Hayes

Monica Hand is the author of DiVida and me and Nina. After a thirty-two-year career with the U.S. Postal Service, she received an MFA in Poetry and Poetry in Translation from Drew University in 2011. In 2012 she moved to Columbia, Missouri, to pursue a PhD at the University of Missouri. Hand received a fellowship from Cave Canem and served as a founding member of the poetry collective Poets for Ayiti. 

ForeWord Reviews‘ 2012 Book of the Year Award Finalist

2013 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award Finalist