The Cotillion, or, One Good Bull Is Half the Herd

Beautiful, high-stepping Yoruba of Harlem is invited to the annual cotillion thrown by African American high society of Queens. Caught between the indifference of her father, the excitement of her social-climbing mother, and her prodigal boyfriend's militancy, Yoruba persuades her sister debutantes to challenge the aging doyennes in one of the most sidesplitting scenes in American literature. Nominated for a Pulitzer in 1972, Killens's uproarious satire captures the conflicts within black society in the 1960s. *The Cotillion* is the fourth title in Coffee House Press's acclaimed *Black Arts Movement* series. **John Oliver Killens** was born in Macon, Georgia in 1916. Co-founder of the Harlem Writers Guild, he taught at Howard and Columbia Universities. His other novels include *And Then We Heard the Thunder,* and *The Great Black Russian.*