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Announcing 2022 Cave Canem/Maison Baldwin Fellow Ashunda Norris

Check out our new partnership with La Maison Baldwin! We’ve joined forces to create the Cave Canem/Maison Baldwin Fellowship— an opportunity for an LGBTQ+ Cave Canem fellow.

Our inaugural winner is Ashunda Norris, who will be joining our June 2022 cohort for a monthlong residency in James Baldwin’s adopted French hometown. Born and raised in rural Georgia, Ashunda is a Black feminist multidisciplinary artist with creative work that encompasses film, poetry, archiving, and critical scholarship. Her art centers the complexities of Black {southern} womxnhood/girlhood, magical spiritual traditions of Southern Black folk, and Black fugitivity. A California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellow, Ashunda’s honors include fellowships from Cave Canem, Haile Germia’s Liberated Territory, EcoTheo’s Starshine & Clay and the New York State Summer Writers Institute. Her writing has been featured or is forthcoming in Obsidian, Taint Taint Taint, Root Work Journal, Fence, EcoTheo Review, PANK, Trampoline and elsewhere. A country blk girl at heart, Ashunda loves hot water cornbread, stargazing, obscure cinema, and the ocean.

“Bless my heart, I wasn’t ready to admit to myself that I was queer back when I first picked up Giovanni’s Room while in grad school at Howard. So picture me reading this book in the heart of one of the gayest, Blackest cities in America and nearly losing my shit at the words flowing on the page. I didn’t know it yet, but I needed those words, to see a reflection I didn’t know was possible. And that’s what Baldwin gave me: possibilities, new ways of seeing, a belief that to imagine is to manifest, to live is to be a whole version of one’s truest self.” — Ashunda Norris, 2022 Cave Canem Maison Baldwin Fellow.

“There is nothing like being seen by the eyes of those who, without explanation, understand why you do what you do when you do it. There is nothing like not having to decode or apologize for the sweet pleasure of a word or phrase that will not let loose of your ear.”

Nikky Finney, The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South

2015-11-26T15:29:19-04:00

Nikky Finney, The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South

“There is nothing like being seen by the eyes of those who, without explanation, understand why you do what you do when you do it. There is nothing like not having to decode or apologize for the sweet pleasure of a word or phrase that will not let loose of your ear.”

https://cavecanempoets.org/testimonials/nikky-finney-the-ringing-ear-black-poets-lean-south/

“Cave Canem is a kind of heaven, yes. It’s not just that we are speaking to each other there as black people; it’s that we’ve lived the lives of black poets. We’ve faced the fears, the hurts, and we’re still poets. To undertake and stay with this task, usually so unrewarded, creates a kind of strength and compassion that is enormous.”

Toi Derricotte

2015-11-26T15:31:58-04:00

Toi Derricotte

“Cave Canem is a kind of heaven, yes. It’s not just that we are speaking to each other there as black people; it’s that we’ve lived the lives of black poets. We’ve faced the fears, the hurts, and we’re still poets. To undertake and stay with this task, usually so unrewarded, creates a kind of strength and compassion that is enormous.”

https://cavecanempoets.org/testimonials/toi-derricotte/

“Back in 2000 when I was first accepted at Cave Canem, I was working part-time at a bookstore making less than $7 an hour. The scholarship I received was the only reason I was able to attend, and it changed my writing life by introducing me to mentors like Toi Derricotte and Nikky Finney and eventually connecting me to the editor who published my first book. Please consider changing another poet's life by supporting Cave Canem financially.”

Traci Dant, Fellow

2015-11-26T15:44:16-04:00

Traci Dant, Fellow

“Back in 2000 when I was first accepted at Cave Canem, I was working part-time at a bookstore making less than $7 an hour. The scholarship I received was the only reason I was able to attend, and it changed my writing life by introducing me to mentors like Toi Derricotte and Nikky Finney and eventually connecting me to the editor who published my first book. Please consider changing another poet's life by supporting Cave Canem financially.”

https://cavecanempoets.org/testimonials/284/

“While I can't even begin to measure Cave Canem's value to me personally (community, friendship, rigor), we all can see the radical movement it’s occasioned in American poetry. To be plain: it's changed—and is changing—the face(s) of our literary landscape. How often in our lives will we be able to participate in something as important and beautiful? It's a joy to support this."

Ross Gay, Fellow

2015-11-26T15:44:48-04:00

Ross Gay, Fellow

“While I can't even begin to measure Cave Canem's value to me personally (community, friendship, rigor), we all can see the radical movement it’s occasioned in American poetry. To be plain: it's changed—and is changing—the face(s) of our literary landscape. How often in our lives will we be able to participate in something as important and beautiful? It's a joy to support this."

https://cavecanempoets.org/testimonials/285/

“By the time I leave a CC Retreat, I can feel that the internal imperative to Write! has shifted from an obsessive, isolating quality to one of deep communal rites and responsibilities – what healthier transition exists for an artist?

Geffrey Davis

2015-11-26T15:51:22-04:00

Geffrey Davis

“By the time I leave a CC Retreat, I can feel that the internal imperative to Write! has shifted from an obsessive, isolating quality to one of deep communal rites and responsibilities – what healthier transition exists for an artist?

https://cavecanempoets.org/testimonials/geffrey-davis/