In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Andrew Thomas speaks with Jameka Williams about her Brittingham Prize-winning debut poetry collection, American Sex Tape™ (2022, The University of Wisconsin Press).

Brittingham Prize judge and poet Brian Teare describes American Sex Tape™ as a collection “[s]plit between a love of watching and the fear created by it.” “Williams demolishes misogynist, racist logic with weaponized line breaks and wrecking-ball wit. Looking directly “into the camera,” Williams writes “about taking back power” and “the thin line between pleasure and collusion.” “Complex and messy and necessary in all the ways sex is,” Teare concludes, “American Sex Tape™ is brilliant Black feminist truth.”

Jameka Williams holds an MFA in poetry from Northwestern University. Her poetry has been published in Prelude Magazine, Muzzle Magazine, and Gulf Coast, among others. A Pushcart Prize nominee, she resides in Chicago, Illinois.

You can follower her @meka_will_write on Twitter.