Reviews of Lions Don't Eat Us

“Captivating narratives and hard-earned insights…in this elegantly constructed collection.”—New York Times Book Review

“This is one impressive and mature first collection.”—Booklist

“This book is highly recommended for contemporary collections.”—Library Journal

“In Lions Don’t Eat Us, Constance Quarterman Bridges gives readers the gift of the griot’s embodied eloquence, memory working to delicately braid the fibers of a family’s connected lives. The core of the African-American tradition has been waiting for this book.”—Afaa Michael Weaver

“When I finished reading Lions Don’t Eat Us, the first word that came to mind was dignity, Constance Quarterman Bridges’s own, and the dignity she confers on her cast of characters. She doesn’t try to startle us with the outrages of slavery and their aftermath; she assumes we know them. Instead she honors her ancestors by mediating their histories, and by giving them voice. Bridges has stories to tell, witnessing to do, and in this her first book she finds a language equal to her task that pretties up nothing while remaining lyrical and lovingly precise.”—Stephen Dunn