Wanda Coleman | Poet, author, 67

Wanda Coleman, 67, who long was regarded as Los Angeles' unofficial poet laureate, died Friday after a long illness, said her husband, poet Austin Straus.

During four decades as a force on the Los Angeles poetry scene, Ms. Coleman wrote more than 20 books, including novels and collections of short stories and essays.

She was most eloquent in poems, illuminating the ironies and despair in a poor black woman's daily struggle for dignity, but also writing tenderly and with humor about identity, tangled love, and her working-class parents.

Ms. Coleman's Mercurochrome (2001) was a finalist for the National Book Award.

Opinionated and fiercely individualistic, Ms. Coleman was also a critic and former columnist for the Los Angeles Times, whose scornful 2002 review of author Maya Angelou's A Song Flung Up to Heaven caused a tempest in the world of letters. - L.A. Times