Amazon.com description: Product Description: Cultural Writing. Literary Criticism. African American Studies. Ben Lerner interviews the poet Michael S. Harper about his important book on the American experience, DEBRIDEMENT(now available for the first time in its intended format). In addition, Herman Beavers, Alison Bundy, Deborah Murphy and Scott Saul contribute thoughtful and provocative essays on Harper's major contributions to the artistic, political and social discourse."In my experience, most history is unwritten, particularly the history about blacks in America, and its traduction is a continuous minefield of delusion and denial, from slavery, to the African slave trade, to "Reconstruction," and the compromises inherent in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. So as an American writer you had better have your own sense of history if you are going to be rooted in any kind of truth as you see it" - Michael S. Harper, interviewed by Ben Lerner.