Ellease Southerland received the Gwendolyn Brooks Award for Poetry in 1971 for her poem "Warlock." Her first book, The Magic Sun Spins, a collection of new and previously published poetry, appeared in 1975. However, not until 1979 with the publication of her first novel, Let the Lion Eat Straw, did Ellease Southerland reach a wide audience. As one of her first editors, Hoyt W. Fuller, wrote after the novel appeared: "Well, we should have known. The strength was always there, as much inherent in the vision as in the talent. Ellease Southerland ... has triumphed ... all the beauty is there. Muted, unstrained, honest, clear. Her achievement ... reduces a burden we bear for all those talented writers who would be truly free." And with both the popular and critical acclaim for Let the Lion Eat Straw and more fiction and poetry on its way, it looks as if Ellease Southerland is only just...