No American education should be considered complete without a visceral understanding of plantation life for teenage Black girls in the slavery centuries before the Civil War, when molestation and sexual trauma were so routine that enslavers viewed them as an entitlement. These details, in Artress Bethany White's mind, must never be skipped over. Thusly, the Black fawns are heard on high in this staggering collection.

-- "Foreword Reviews"

Artress Bethany White weaves her vibrant poetic textile from historic, archival, and folkloric threads. With keen attention to visual and sonic texture, these poems hold space for the intergenerational experiences of Black, Indigenous, and mixed-race families. The shifting complex of American racial identity--as emblematized in the story of the Hairstons--is at the core of this work. White's focus never wavers from the archive's 'uncomfortable' truths. This is an important and energizing read.

--Kiki Petrosino, author of White Blood: A Lyric of Virginia

Artress Bethany White's new collection trains the ear and eye of a master poet toward some of the most foundational traumas in the modern world. Perhaps it is a strange thing to marvel at the sonic beauty of poems excavating the complications and traumas of sex and slavery. Perhaps it is a strange thing to make a terrible history sing in a stunning contralto. But perhaps such a song is the only way we might trick a sick society into engaging honestly with its own roots. This is a book to cherish.

--Nate Marshall, author of Finna: Poems

A Black Doe in the Anthropocene is meticulously researched, and White deploys her source material throughout the book to great effect.

-- "Solstice: A Magazine of Diverse Voices"

Finalist for the 2026 Montaigne Medal

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Pub date: 2025-06-17

Length: 104 pages