"Invited Guest, as is the case with really good anthologies, significantly shapes the history of the literature it surveys."
- Mary Ellis Gibson, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, editor of Homeplaces: Stories of the South by Women Writers

"Rigsbee and Brown have selected not only the well-known or signature poems, but also poems that are not often anthologized, making Invited Guest fresh and interesting. This work is enjoyable and informative, incisive and insightful."
- Joanne V. Gabbin, James Madison University, editor of The Furious Flowering of African American Poetry