Lanier teacher pens poetry collections on pitbulls and prayers
From boxing and pitbulls to the pull of friendship and the vicissitudes of love, Van G. Garrett’s poetry plumbs the depths of disappointment to the simple soaring joys of flying a kite. The poet, who is a teacher at Lanier Middle School by day, has recently released two new collections.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Houston Baptist University and a master’s in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Houston-Victoria, and was the first UH student to receive a graduate certificate in African American Studies. He has been a prolific poet and won the Texas Association of Authors’ 2017 Best Book of African American Poetry award for his chapbook “49: Wings and Prayers,” filled with Kwansaba poems, an African American poetic form in which each poem is 49 words. Based on the principle of seven, these are usually poems of praise, created during the rise of the black arts movement along with the beginning of Kwanzaa.
‘Pit Bulls and J-Walks’
Kattywompus Press
January 2020
Doni Wilson is an English professor and writer in Houston.
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