Fellows

Maria Eliza Hamilton Abegunde
Maria E. Hamilton Abegunde, Ph.D., is a Memory Keeper, ancestral priest in the Yoruba Orisa tradition, healing facilitator, doula, Civic Reflection Dialogue trainer, and Powerful Conversations on Race facilitator. Her…
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Elizabeth Acevedo
ELIZABETH ACEVEDO was born and raised in New York City and her poetry is infused with her Dominican parents’ bolero and her beloved city’s tough grit. She holds a BA in…
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Opal Palmer Adisa
Diverse, innovative and multi-genre, Opal Palmer Adisa is an exceptional talent, nurtured on cane-sap and the oceanic breeze of Jamaica. Charismatic and informed, Adisa’s concerns span the gamut from children to…
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M. Saida Agostini
Saida is a queer Afro-Guyanese poet whose work explores the ways that Black folks harness mythology to enter the fantastic. Saida’s poetry can be found in Barrelhouse Magazine, the Black…
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Joshua Aiken
Joshua Allen Aiken is a poet, researcher, and historian currently based in New Haven, Connecticut. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize twice and his work has been featured…
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Abdul Ali
Abdul Ali—poet, writer, educator, and cultural worker – is the Andrew W. Mellon program coordinator at the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC). Ali has held distinguished teaching appointments at…
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Shirlette Ammons
Shirlette Ammons’ most recent collection of poetry, Matching Skin featuring The John Anonymous EP was published by Carolina Wren Press in 2008. first collection entitled Stumphole: Aunthology of Backwoods Blood was…
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Anastacia-Renee
Anastacia-Renee is an award-winning cross-genre writer, educator, interdisciplinary artist, TEDX speaker and podcaster. Renee is the author of (v.), (Black Ocean Press), Forget It (Black Radish Press) and Answer(Me), (Winged…
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Raymond Antrobus
Raymond Antrobus was born in London, Hackney to an English mother and Jamaican father, and is the author of ‘To Sweeten Bitter’ and ‘The Perseverance’. He is a founding member…
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Derrick L. Austin
Derrick Austin’s first collection of poems, Trouble the Water, was selected by Mary Szybist for the 2015 A Poulin Jr Prize and is forthcoming from BOA Editions in Spring 2016.…
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Cameron Awkward-Rich
Cameron Awkward-Rich is on the staff of Muzzle Magazine and his work has appeared/is forthcoming in The Seattle Review, The Journal, Vinyl, cream city review and elsewhere. He is currently a PhD candidate…
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Gustavo Adolfo Aybar
Gustavo Adolfo Aybar is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Kansas City where he received his MA in Romance Languages & Literature. As a scholar he’s presented at the University…
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makalani bandele
I am a Louisville, KY native. I am an ordained Baptist minister and former pastor. I hold degrees from University of Notre Dame and Shaw University-Divinity School. A member…
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Samiya Bashir
Samiya Bashir’s work includes the forthcoming book of poems, Field Theory, as well as Gospel, Where the Apple Falls, and the anthology Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social & Political Black…
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Michelle Courtney Berry
Michelle Courtney Berry, the second Poet Laureate of Tompkins County, has appeared on “Good Morning America” and was elected delegate for Mr. Barack Obama in her Congressional District by over 16,000 votes. A…
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Lillian Bertram
Lillian-Yvonne Bertram is a Gaius Charles Bolin Fellow in English at Williams College where she teaches poetry. She is a graduate of the Creative Writing Program at Carnegie Mellon University,…
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Reginald Dwayne Betts
Dwayne writes poems. This is what he tells people, this is what he stands by. In the footnotes of his life there will be a line that reads: saved by…
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Tara Betts
Originally from Illinois, Tara Betts is the author of Arc and Hue. She is a graduate of the New England College MFA Program. She represented Chicago twice at the National Poetry…
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Remica L. Bingham
Remica L. Bingham, a native of Phoenix, Arizona, received her MFA from Bennington College. She has been awarded fellowships from the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshops and Cave Canem. In addition…
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Destiny Oshay Birdsong
Destiny Birdsong is a graduate of Fisk University, where she received her B.A. in History and English. She is also a graduate of Vanderbilt University,where she received her…
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Timothy Black
Timothy Black’s first book, Connecticut Shade, a fusion of poetry, prose and play, was published in 2008 and is currently in its second printing from WSC Press. Tim’s poetry has…
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Tommye Blount
A native of Detroit, Tommye Blount is purusing an MFA in poetry from Warren Wilson College’s MFA Program for Writers. He recieved his B.A. in advertising from Michgan State University.…
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Shane Book
Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE Shane Book’s first collection, Ceiling of Sticks, won the 2009 Prairie Schooner Book Prize and the 2012 Great Lakes Colleges Association New…
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Malika S Booker
Malika Booker is a British writer of Guyanese and Grenadian Parentage, who writes poetry, plays and solo monologues. Her poems are widely anthologised in anthologies and journals including Bittersweet: Contemporary…
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Jari Bradley
jaribradley.com Jari Bradley is a black genderqueer poet and scholar from San Francisco, California. Jari has received fellowships from Callaloo, Cave Canem, and Tin House. Their work has been featured…
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Antoinette Brim
Antoinette Brim, author of two collections of poetry “Icarus in Love” (Main Street Rag, 2013) and “Psalm of the Sunflower” (Willow Books, 2009), is a Cave Canem Foundation fellow, a…
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Derrick Brown
Derrick Weston Brown holds an MFA in Creative Writing from American University. He was the founding Poet-In-Residence at Busboys and Poets and has taught creative writing and poetry at all…
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drea brown
Originally from St.Louis, drea brown is currently a PhD candidate in African and African Diaspora Studies at UT Austin. her work has appeared in a variety of literary journals most…
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Mahogany L. Browne
Mahogany has four LPs including the international hit Black Secret Soul and the newest live album Sheroshima. As co-founder of the Off Broadway poetry production, Jam On It, and co-producer…
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Gloria Jean Burgess
Poet, author, mother, daughter, sister, consultant, and executive coach; 33 years in a legacy marriage. Faculty: University of Washington, Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center (Leadership Institute), and Bainbridge Graduate Institute.…
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CM Burroughs
CM Burroughs has been awarded fellowships and grants from organizations including Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Cave Canem, Callaloo Writers Workshop and the University of…
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Evan R. Burton
Evan Burton lives in Harlem. He is an MFA candidate at the City College of New York and a first year fellow. He thinks of poetry variably, as a space…
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James Cagney
Cave Canem fellow James Cagney is a writer, poet and performer from Oakland, Ca. He’s appeared as a featured artist at venues such as the San Francisco Public Library, The…
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Christian Campbell
Christian Campbell is a writer of Bahamian and Trinidadian heritage. He studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and received a PhD at Duke. His poetry and essays have been…
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Robin Caudell
Robin Caudell is an AP award-winning journalist and videographer. She has been a staff writer at the Press-Republican since 1990. Born and raised on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, she holds a B.S. in…
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Nikia Chaney
Nikia Chaney is a poet from the Inland Empire of California. She is author of two chapbooks, Sis Fuss (2012, Orange Monkey Publishing) and ladies, please (2012, Dancing Girl Press). She is founding editor…
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Cortney Lamar Charleston
Cortney Lamar Charleston is originally from South Holland, IL, a suburb of Chicago, and currently resides in Jersey City, NJ. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania,…
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Adrienne E Christian
Adrienne Christian earned her BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Michigan, and her MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific University. She is the author of the poetry…
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Jeremy Clark
Jeremy Clark is from Louisville, Ky, where he completed his undergraduate work in Pan-African Studies at the University of Louisville in 2014. A participant in the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop,…
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Ama Codjoe
Ama Codjoe is the author of Blood of the Air, winner of the Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize, and Bluest Nude (Milkweed Editions, 2022). She is the recipient of honors…
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Kristiana Rae Colón
Kristiana Rae Colón is a poet, playwright, actor, educator, and co-director of the #LetUsBreathe Collective. Her play but i cd only whisper had its American premiere at The Flea in New York.…
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Nandi Njeri-Ayinde Comer
Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE Nandi Comer currently serves as poetry editor for the Indiana Review. She is also pursuing an MFA in Poetry and an MA in African…
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Rio Cortez
Rio Cortez is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, where she was the recipient of the Lucy Grealy Prize in Poetry. She is a Cave Canem fellow & MFA candidate…
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Anya Creightney
Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE Anya Creightney is originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico with roots in Kingston and Copenhagen. She attended Occidental College in Los Angeles, followed…
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Curtis L. Crisler
Curtis L. Crisler was born and raised in Gary, Indiana. He received a BA in English, with a minor in Theatre, from Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW), and he…
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Teri Cross Davis
Teri Ellen Cross Davis is the author of Haint, (Gival Press, 2016) winner of the 2017 Ohioana Book Award for Poetry. She has attended the Soul Mountain Writer’s Retreat, the Virginia…
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Vida Cross
A blues poet and a 2018 Pushcart nominee, Vida Cross’ book of poetry, Bronzeville at Night:1949, debuted in 2017. She is a Cave Canem Fellow who holds an MFA in…
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DeLana R.A. Dameron
Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 DéLana R. A. Dameron is the author of How God Ends Us (University of South Carolina Press 2009), chosen by Elizabeth Alexander as the…
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Traci Dant
Traci Dant has a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Washington University in St. Louis. She has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Illinois Arts Council. Her…
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Geffrey Davis
Geffrey Davis is the author of Revising the Storm (BOA Editions, 2014), winner of the A. Poulin Poetry Prize. He is also the recipient of the Anne Halley Poetry Prize, the Wabash…
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Jarita Davis
Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Jarita Davis is a poet and fiction writer who earned a B.A. in classics from Brown University and both an M.A. and a Ph.D.…
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Maurice E. Decaul
Maurice Emerson Decaul, a former Marine, is a poet, essayist and playwright whose writing has been featured in The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Sierra Magazine, Epiphany, Callaloo, Narrative, The Common and…
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Sean DesVignes
Sean DesVignes is the author of the upcoming chapbook, Take My Eyes To The Dry Cleaners. Working intensively in NYC’s performance poetry scene, he is a two-time member of the…
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de'Angelo Dia
As a poet, theologian, and comicbook scholar, Dia investigates public opinion and contemporary beliefs on cultural, social-political, and theological issues through performance art. He received a Bachelor of Science in…
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Joel Wayne Dias-Porter
(aka DJ Renegade) was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA, and is a former professional DJ in the DC area. From 1994- 1999 I competed in the National Poetry Slam,…
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LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs
Writer, vocalist, and sound artist, LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs is the author TwERK (2013, Belladonna); three chapbooks which include Ichi-Ban, Ni-Ban (MOH Press), Manuel is destroying my bathroom (Belladonna Press); and the album, Televisíon.…
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Kimberly Dixon
Ms. Dixon was a finalist in the Guild Literary Complex’s annual Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Awards, a featured artist in the Guild’s performance poetry project “Tour Guides,” has been published…
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Alyss Dixson
Alyss Dixson received a BA in Comparative Literature from Yale. She attended Columbia University School of the Arts, MFA in Film before leaving to work in the film business where…
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Mitchell L. H. Douglas
Mitchell L. H. Douglas’ poetry has appeared in Callaloo, Ninth Letter, Crab Orchard Review and the anthologies The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South (University of Georgia Press) and Zoland…
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Camille T. Dungy
Camille T. Dungy is the author of Smith Blue, Suck on the Marrow, and What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison. She is the editor of…
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Mary Moore Easter
Pushcart Prize-nominated poet Mary Moore Easter’s work has been published in, among other journals, Poetry, Seattle Review, Water Stone, Calyx, Pluck!, Persimmon Tree and Fjord’s Review, and in the anthology Blues Vision: African American Writing from…
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Julian Gregory Marcellus Easterly
Born in Paducah, Kentucky and raised in Detroit, Michgan. Published in several anthologies including Fresh Ink and Zero Gravity and on WordPress. The Youngest Cave Canem Poet.
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Natasha Ria El-Scari
Natasha Ria El-Scari is a writer, editor, Cave Canem fellow, performance poet and educator for over a decade. Her poetry is widely published. She is the author of, Screaming Times…
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Teri Elam
teri elam, an Atlantan, has been published in Prairie Schooner, Slice Magazine, december magazine, Auburn Avenue, Limp Wrist, Cave Canem’s The Ringing Ear, and VONA’s Dismantle. She has essays included…
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Safia Elhillo
A Pushcart Prize nominee, Safia Elhillo is Sudanese by way of Washington, DC. A Cave Canem fellow who received an MFA in poetry from The New School, her debut The…
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Jasmine Elizabeth is a poet from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Her work is invested in the migration of Black communities in various historical contexts and eras. She is poetry editor and…
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Chiyuma Elliot
Chiyuma Elliott is an Assistant Professor of African American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Her scholarly work focuses on poetry and the Harlem Renaissance. A former Stegner Fellow,…
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Ai Elo
Ai Elo is a contributing writer for the Indypendent News Paper, a worker’s rights and queer justice activist, and a freelance photojournalist.
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Naomi Extra
Naomi Extra is a freelance writer, poet, educator, and doctoral student in American Studies at Rutgers University-Newark. Naomi taught high school and worked as an adjunct professor for eight years…
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Kwoya Fagin Maples
Kwoya Fagin Maples is a writer from Charleston, S.C. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Alabama, is a graduate Cave Canem Fellow and a Homeschool…
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Chanda Feldman
Chanda Feldman grew up in Tennessee. She earned a MFA from Cornell University and a BA in English Literature from the University of Chicago. She has received fellowships from Bread…
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Elizabeth Fields
Elizabeth Maria Fields is a Cave Canem poetry fellow and has been published in several print and on line publications including Wicked Alice, the Cave Canem Anthology XII, the Georgia…
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Cherryl Floyd-Miller
Cherryl Floyd-Miller is a poet/playwright/fiber artist working and living in her native North Carolina. She is a manager at a healthcare firm and teaches writing courses in her community. Her…
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Aricka Foreman
Aricka Foreman is a writer, editor and educator from Detroit, MI. Her poems and essays have appeared in The Offing, Buzzfeed, Vinyl, RHINO, The Blueshift Journal, Day One, shuf Poetry,…
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Krista Franklin
Krista Franklin is a poet and visual artist whose poetry and collages have been published in Indiana Review, Ecotone, Clam, Callaloo, MiPOesias.com, CultureServe.net, and the anthology Gathering Ground. Her collages…
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Yolanda Jocelyn Franklin
I’m currently a PhD student in Poetry at Florida State University.
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Jonterri Gadson
Jonterri Gadson is Debra’s Daughter. A proud Cave Canem fellow, she is also a recent graduate of the University of Virginia’s Creative Writing MFA program and the Callaloo Creative Writers…
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Hafizah Geter
Hafizah Geter received her BA in English & Economics from Clemson University, and her MFA in Poetry from Columbia College Chicago. She is a South Carolina native currently living in…
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Carmen Gillespie
Carmen Gillespie is a professor of English and director and founder of the Griot Institute for Africana Studies at Bucknell University. In addition to scholarly articles and poem publications, she is author of the literary critical works, A Critical Companion to Toni Morrison (2007), A Critical Companion to Alice Walker (2011), and the editor of Toni Morrison: Forty Years in the Clearing (2012).
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Kiala Givehand
Kiala Givehand is a storyteller, bookbinder, and LifeAlchemist™ who guides women to and through creative & spiritual awakenings. She combines creativity with intuition, ancient guidance systems, and intentional self-study as…
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Ebony Noelle Golden
Hailing from Houston, TX, Ebony Noelle Golden is a cultural worker, artist, and creative director of Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative. She earned degrees from New York University (M.A.-Performance Studies), American University (M.F.A.-Poetry), and Texas A & M University (B.A.-English/Poetry). A 2009…
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Natalie Graham
A native of Gainesville, Florida, Natalie Graham earned her M.F.A. in Creative Writing at the University of Florida and Ph.D. in American Studies at Michigan State University. Her poems have appeared…
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Yalonda JD Green
Yalonda JD Green is a poet, performing songwriter, scholar, and educator from Detroit, MI currently working on her creative dissertation in University of Louisville’s Humanities PhD program. She holds…
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Rachel Eliza Griffiths
Rachel Eliza Griffiths is a poet, writer, painter, and photographer. She received the MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College and the MA in English Literature from the University…
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Myron Michael Hardy
Myron Michael is a recording artist, writing teacher, and producer at Move or Die. His poetry appears online at Harvard Review, Outside in Literary and Travel Magazine, Pine Hills…
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Janice N Harrington
Janice N. Harrington’s Even the Hollow My Body Made Is Gone (2007) won the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize from BOA Editions and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. Formerly a…
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Alysia Nicole Harris
Alysia Nicole Harris hails from Alexandria, Virginia. She received her MFA in poetry from NYU and is currently a PhD candidate in linguistics at Yale University. Alysia is the 2015…
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francine j. harris
francine j. harris is a Cave Canem graduate and has work appearing in McSweeney’s “Poets Picking Poets”, Ninth Letter, Ploughshares, Boxcar and in an anthology by the AIDS Project of…
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Reginald M Harris
A Pushcart Prize nominee and winner of the Cave Canem / Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize for Autogeography, his work has appeared on line and in various publications including African-American…
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Shayla Hawkins
Why do I love to write? Why do I feel I must write? What am I supposed to write? Did I choose writing, or did writing choose me? And what gift…
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M. Ayodele Heath
An Atlanta native, M. Ayodele Heath, is author of Otherness (Brick Road Poetry Press). Ayodele has been featured at such venues as the National Black Arts Festival, the Nuyorican…
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K Henderson
K. Henderson is an antidisciplinary writer and musician whose performances have been featured in venues across the U.S. Their poems appear in the Iowa Review’s poetry month blog, ANMLY, and…
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Niki Herd
Niki Herd earned degrees in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona and Antioch in Los Angeles. She is the recipient of fellowships from Cave Canem and the Virginia Center…
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Rage Hezekiah
Rage Hezekiah is a New England based poet and educator, who earned her MFA from Emerson College. She has received fellowships from Cave Canem, MacDowell, and The Ragdale Foundation, and…
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Sean Hill
Normal 0 0 1 91 521 4 1 639 11.1282 0 0 0 Sean Hill is the author of Blood Ties & Brown Liquor (UGA Press, 2008). His various fellowships…
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Andre O. Hoilette
André O. Hoilette is a Jamaican-born poet living in Denver, Colorado. He is a Cave Canem alumnus and the former editor of ambulant: A Journal of Poetry & Art and…
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Darrel Alejandro Holnes
Darrel Alejandro Holnes studied creative writing at the Universities of Houston and Michigan, the latter from which he earned a Masters of Fine Arts degree. His poetry has been published in…
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Lita Hooper
Resides in Atlanta, GA. Teaches English at Georgia Perimeter College (associate professor). BA from DePaul University; MA from University of Colorado; DA from Clark Atlanta University. Published in anthologies and…
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Akua Lezli Hope
A third generation Caribbean-American-New Yorker, firstborn, Akua Lezli Hope has won a Creative Writing Fellowship from The National Endowment for The Arts, two Artists Fellowships from the New York Foundation for…
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Randall G Horton
Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Randall Horton, originally from Birmingham, Alabama, resides in Albany, New York. He has a MFA from Chicago State and a PhD in Creative Writing…
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Elisabeth Houston
Elisabeth Houston lives and works in Los Angeles, California. She writes and performs most regularly through her alter-ego aka baby aka “baaaby” – aka – “jenny lowenberg” – aka –…
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Juliet P. Howard
Juliet P. Howard (JP Howard) is a poet, lawyer, Cave Canem fellow and native New Yorker. She has been selected as a Lambda Literary Foundation 2011 Emerging LGBT Voices Fellow,…
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Saleem Hue Penny
Saleem Hue Penny is a Black “rural hip-hop blues” poet, arts educator, and mutual aid advocate with Lowcountry roots, single-sided deafness, and Ramsay Hunt Syndrome. The 2021 Poetry Coalition Fellow…
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Luther Hughes
Luther Hughes is the author of A Shiver in the Leaves (BOA Editions, 2022) and the chapbook Touched (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2018). He is the co-host of The Poet Salon…
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Ashaki M. Jackson
Dr. Ashaki M. Jackson is the author of two chapter-length collections, including Language Lesson (Miel, 2016). She is a social psychologist and program evaluator residing in Los Angeles, California. Learn…
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Gary Jackson
Born and raised in Topeka, Kansas, Gary Jackson is the author of the poetry collection Missing You, Metropolis, which received the 2009 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. His poems have appeared…
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Khary Jackson
Khary is a performance poet, playwright, dancer and musician. A Detroit native, he currently resides in the Twin Cities where he serves as a teaching artist and writer. He…
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Marcus Jackson
Marcus Jackson was born and raised in Toledo, Ohio. After earning his BA at the University of Toledo, he continued his poetry studies in NYU’s graduate creative writing program and…
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Stacy Nathaniel Jackson
Normal.dotm 0 0 1 167 955 Studio of Stacy Nathaniel Jackson 7 1 1172 12.0 0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false Normal.dotm 0 0 1…
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Yvonne Alicia Jackson
Work has appeared in Chattahoochee Review, Kenyon Review, Gettysburg Review, Obsidian II:Black Literature in Review, Beyond the Frontier, and The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, among others. Named a…
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Brionne Janae
Brionne Janae is a Southern California native who came to Boston to get an MFA at Emerson College. While in California, Brionne received her B.A. at U.C. Berkeley where she…
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Brandon D. Johnson
Brandon D. Johnson is author of Love’s Skin, Man Burns Ant, The Strangers Between, and co-author of The Black Rooster Social Inn: This Is The Place. He is published in several journals and…
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Jacqueline Johnson
Jacqueline Johnson is a multi-disciplined artist creating in both poetry, fiction writing and fiber arts. She is the author of A Woman’s Season (Main Street Rag Press, 2015) and A…
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Amanda Johnston
Amanda Johnston earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine. She is the author of two chapbooks, GUAP and Lock & Key, and…
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Kelli Stevens Kane
Kelli Stevens Kane is a poet, playwright, and oral historian based in Pittsburgh, PA. She’s a Cave Canem Fellow and an August Wilson Center Fellow, and has received Advancing Black…
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Douglas Kearney
Douglas Kearney’s first full-length collection of poems, Fear, Some, was published in 2006 by Red Hen Press. His second manuscript, The Black Automaton, was chosen by Catherine Wagner for the…
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Nzadi Keita
Nzadi Keita, a 2017 Pew Fellow in poetry, is a first-generation urban northerner. The Philly-born writer also works as an editor, scholar and teacher. Her most recent book, Brief Evidence…
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Donika Kelly (Ross)
Donika Kelly is the author of the chapbook AVIARIUM (fivehundred places 2017), and the full-length collection BESTIARY (Graywolf 2016), winner of the 2015 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the 2017 Hurston/Wright…
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Alan Winston King
“A fixture on the D.C. MD VA scene since 1999, Alan has at one time blessed every Open Mic spot throughout the area. Mangoes, he was there; Brookland Cup Of…
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Jacqueline Jones LaMon
Currently President of Cave Canem’s Board of Directors and a member of the board since 2009, LaMon is the author of two collections of poems, Last Seen, a Felix Pollak Poetry…
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Quraysh Ali Lansana
Quraysh Ali Lansana is author of eight poetry books, three textbooks, three children’s books, editor of eight anthologies, and coauthor of a book of pedagogy. He is a faculty member…
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Rickey Laurentiis
Rickey Laurentiis was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is the recipient of fellowships from the Cave Canem Foundation, the Ruth Lilly Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, and a Chancellor’s…
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Kateema Lee
Kateema Lee is a Washington D.C. native. Her recent work has been published in print and online journals such as Beltway Poetry Quarterly, African American Review, Gargoyle, Baltimore Review, and…
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Sherry Quan Lee
Sherry Quan Lee, MFA, 1996, University of Minnesota, and first year Cave Canem participant 1996 is the author of Love Imagined: a mixed race memoir; a Minnesota Book Award Finalist 2015, Modern…
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Robin Coste Lewis
ROBIN COSTE LEWIS’ writing has appeared in The Massachusetts Review, The Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review, Callaloo, GCN, The Pocket Myth Series, and anthologized in Black Silk and The Encyclopedia…
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Steven Leyva
Steven Leyva was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and raised in Houston, Texas. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in 2 Bridges Review, Scalawag, Nashville Review, jubilat, Vinyl, Prairie…
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Nick Makoha
The Founder of Obsidian Foundation Nick Makoha is a Ugandan poet and playwright and based in London. His debut Kingdom of Gravity was shortlisted for the Felix Dennis Prize and…
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Cynthia Manick
Cynthia Manick is the author of Blue Hallelujahs forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press. A Pushcart Prize nominated poet with a MFA in Creative Writing from the New School; she…
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Erica Mapp
Artist and poet Erica Mapp, originally from Trinidad, lives in New York City. She received a BFA from the Cooper Union School of Art in New York and a MA…
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Kim Marshall
Born in Seoul, South Korea, Kim Marshall is a biracial poet who considers herself from a little bit of everywhere due to the experience of traveling extensively during her childhood.…
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Maya A. Marshall
Maya Marshall is a Chicago-based writer, editor, and poet. She is co-founder of www. underbellymag.com. Marshall holds fellowships from Cave Canem, Callaloo, and the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. Her…
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Nate Marshall
Nate Marshall is from the South Side of Chicago. His first book, Wild Hundreds (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015), won the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize. He is an editor of The BreakBeat Poets: New…
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Kyla Marshell
Kyla Marshell’s work has appeared in Blackbird, Calyx, Gawker, The Guardian, O, the Oprah Magazine, and on the Poetry Foundation. Her work has earned her Cave Canem and Jacob K. Javits fellowships, two residencies…
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Dawn Lundy Martin
Dawn Lundy Martin was awarded the 2006 Cave Canem Poetry Prize by Carl Phillips for her manuscript, A Gathering of Matter/A Matter of Gathering (University of Georgia Press, 2007). She…
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Adrian Matejka
Adrian Matejka is the author of four collections of poems including The Big Smoke (Penguin, 2013) which a winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was finalist for the National…
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Jamaal May
Jamaal May is the author of two chapbooks, The God Engine and The Whetting of Teeth. He has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Callaloo, and the Bread Loaf Writers Conference.…
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Shara McCallum
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Shara McCallum is the author of three individual collections of poetry, This Strange Land, Song of Thieves, and The Water Between…
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JoAnne McFarland
JoAnne McFarland is a painter and poet working in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn. Her latest poetry collection Acid Rain received Honorable Mention in the inaugural Northwestern University Press Cave…
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M'Bilia M. Meekers
M’Bilia Meekers is a poetry MFA student at NYU. She has won numerous awards, including the Mable Faun Poetry Award of 2011 and Tulane University’s Academy of American Poets Prize…
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Ernesto Mercer
Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Ernesto Mercer is a poet-multidisciplinary artist, teaching-artist and an independent scholar. His work incorporates many of the written and verbal arts from around the…
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Constance Merritt
Constance Merritt is the author of three poetry collections: A Protocol for Touch (UNT 2000), Blessings and Inclemencies (LSU 2007), and Two Rooms (LSU 2009). Her awards include a Radcliffe…
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Dante Micheaux
Dante Micheaux is the author of Amorous Shepherd (Sheep Meadow Press, 2010). His poems and translations have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Bloom, Callaloo, Gathering Ground and Rattapallax—among other…
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Ciara Miller
Normal 0 false false false EN-US ZH-CN AR-SA Ciara Darnise Miller was born and raised on the West Side of Chicago. After becoming a Louder than a Bomb poetry slam…
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Jonathan Moody
Moody received his MFA from the University of Pittsburgh and is a Cave Canem fellow. His poetry has appeared in African American Review, Crab Orchard Review, Gathering Ground, Gemini Magazine, good foot, The…
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Kamilah Aisha Moon
A recipient of fellowships to the Prague Summer Writing Institute, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA, Cave Canem and The Vermont Studio Center, Kamilah Aisha Moon‘s work has…
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Tracie Morris
Tracie Morris is a poet who’s worked as a page-based writer, sound poet, critic, recording artist, scholar, bandleader, actor, artist consultant, vocal coach and multimedia performer. She presents her work…
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John Murillo
John Murillo is the author of the collection, “Up Jump the Boogie” (Cypher 2010). A graduate of New York University’s MFA program in creative writing, he has received fellowships from…
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Annette L. Murrell
Annette L. Murrell (Dr Diva) is a jazz singer and writer. She has produced and released two recordings: My Shining Hour and Annette Murrell: Live at the Zoo Bar! She has published…
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Rachel Nelson
Rachel Nelson is a Cave Canem graduate fellow who received her MFA from University of Michigan. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Atlas Review, Callaloo, Hartskill Review, Little Patuxent…
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Nicholas Nichols
Nicholas (He/They) is based in Brooklyn, NY. They are an intersectional nerd and obsessed with talking/thinking/writing about all things creative and human.
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Ashunda Norris
Ashunda Norris is country down to her bones. Born and raised in the heart of rural, red clay Georgia, she carries the spirits of her foremamas into the room each…
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January Gill O'Neil
January Gill O’Neil is an associate professor at Salem State University, and the author of Rewilding (2018), Misery Islands (2014), and Underlife (2009), all published by CavanKerry Press. From 2012-2018,…
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Mendi Lewis Obadike
Mendi Lewis Obadike makes literature, art, and music. She is the author of Armor and Flesh (2004), which won the Naomi Long Madgett Prize from Lotus Press. With her husband Keith Obadike, she composed The Sour Thunder, an…
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Jadi Omowale
Jadi Z. Omowale is a writer, publisher, and teacher. She is co-owner of Three Sistahs Press, LLC an upstart, womanist publisher of books by women of color. She has had…
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Ife-Chudeni A. Oputa
Ife-Chudeni A. Oputa is currently completing an MFA in Poetry and an MA in African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. She is a Cave Canem, Callalloo and Lambda…
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Morgan Parker
Morgan Parker received her BA in Creative Writing and Anthropology from Columbia University and her MFA in poetry from NYU. Her work has been featured or is forthcoming in numerous…
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Alexa Patrick
Alexa Patrick is a singer and poet from Connecticut. Alexa is a Cave Canem Fellow and 2019 Head Coach of the D.C. Youth Slam Team. She has held teaching positions…
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Carlo T. Paul
Carlo Toli Paul was born in Brooklyn, New York to Haitian parents. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park where his work first appeared in campus…
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Dustin Pearson
Dustin Pearson is the author of Millennial Roost (Eyewear Publishing, 2018). He is a McKnight Doctoral Fellow in Creative Writing at Florida State University. The recipient of a global fellowship from the…
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Xandria Phillips
Xandria Phillips is a writer, abstract artist, and educator from rural Ohio. The recipient of the Judith A. Markowitz Award for Emerging Writers, and a LAMBDA Literary Award for their…
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Hermine D. Pinson
Hermine Pinson has published three poetry collections: ‘Ashe, Mama Yetta and Other Poems, and Dolores is Blue/Dolorez is Blues. She also released a cd Changine the Changes, in special collaboration…
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Iain Haley Pollock
Iain Haley Pollock’s second collection of poems, Ghost, Like a Place, is forthcoming from Alice James Books in September 2018. His debut collection, Spit Back a Boy, won the 2010 Cave Canem…
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Karisma Price
Karisma Price is from New Orleans, LA, and holds an MFA in poetry from New York University. Her work has appeared in Poetry, Four Way Review, Wildness, The Adroit Journal,…
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Lynne Nicole Claire Procope
LYNNE PROCOPE is a Cave Canem fellow and a former National Poetry Slam champion. She is co-author of the collaborative collection, Burning Down the House (Soft Skull). Her poems appear in…
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Khadijah Queen
Khadijah Queen holds an MFA from Antioch University Los Angeles and a BA in English from University of Maryland. She is the author of a poetry collection, Conduit (Black Goat/Akashic 2008), and…
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Julian Randall
Julian Randall is a Living Queer Black poet from Chicago. He has received fellowships from Cave Canem, CantoMundo, Callaloo, BOAAT, Tin House, Milkweed Editions and the Watering Hole. Julian is…
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Camille Rankine
Camille Rankine is the author of Slow Dance with Trip Wire, selected by Cornelius Eady for the Poetry Society of America’s 2010 New York Chapbook Fellowship. The recipient of a…
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Glenis Gale Redmond
Bio Glenis Redmond, a native of Greenville, South Carolina resides in North Carolina amongst the Cherokee mountains. She graduated from Erskine College and is presently completing an MFA…
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Treasure Shields Redmond
A Mississippi native, Treasure Shields Redmond is a St. Louis-based poet, performer and educator. She has published poetry in such notable anthologies as Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry…
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R. R. Reese
R. R. Reese is a Master of Fine Arts candidate at San Francisco State University and a graduate of Santa Clara University with a BA in English Literature. His poems have…
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Breauna L. Roach
Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE Breauna L. Roach is a native of Detroit, MI and a recipient of the Gwendolyn Brooks Writers Association’s Poetry Prize. Her work…
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Casey Rocheteau
Casey Rocheteau performs throughout the country, and has lead a variety of writing and performance workshops. She has been involved in slam poetry since 2003 including being a member of…
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Kenyatta Rogers
Kenyatta Rogers’ interest in writing began with scary stories and TV shows such as the Twilight Zone and R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series. While writing short stories as a child he…
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Alison C. Rollins
Alison C. Rollins, born and raised in St. Louis city, currently works as a Librarian for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the second prizewinner of the 2016…
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Magali Roy-Fequiere
Magali Roy-Fequiere’s poems explore memory and the phenomenal world. A daughter of multiple diasporas, she sees community as a state of radical openness. Her interest in photography is an…
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Kamau Rucker
Kamau Rucker is a teacher and singer/songwriter. Additional work includes play writing. He is a Master of Fine Arts graduate in Creative Writing from George Mason University and a Cave…
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Lauren Russell
Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE Lauren Russell is the author of chapbooks including Dream-Clung, Gone (Brooklyn Arts Press, 2012). Her first full-length collection, “What’s Hanging on the…
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Metta Sama
I live in three physical worlds and an innumerable number of pyschic worlds. I’m most at home in flight and walking, conversing, listening. I’m still taking photographs using an untrained…
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Aaron Samuels
Aaron Samuels is a Cave Canem Fellow, a Pushcart-nominated poet, and a nationally acclaimed facilitator of critical identity discussions. Raised in Providence, Rhode Island, by a Jewish-American mother and…
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Gwen Samuels
Gwen T. Samuels, born in Florida and raised in New Jersey, was a K-12 teacher, college professor, and court interpreter for 30 years. She is a Fulbright Scholar with a…
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Sami D. Schalk
Sami Schalk is a feminist poet from Southgate, Kentucky. She received her Bachelor degrees in Creative Writing and Women’s Studies at Miami University of Ohio and her MFA in Creative…
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Nicole Sealey
Born in St. Thomas, U.S.V.I. and raised in Apopka, Florida, Nicole Sealey is the author of Ordinary Beast, forthcoming from Ecco in fall 2017, and The Animal After Whom Other Animals Are…
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Charif Shanahan
Charif Shanahan is the author of Into Each Room We Enter Without Knowing (Southern Illinois University Press, 2017), winner of the 2015 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Prize. His poems…
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Aisha Sharif
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Aisha Sharif received her MFA in poetry from Indiana University, Bloomington. Her work has appeared in Muslim Wakeup!, Touchstone Literary Journal, …
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Stewart Shaw
Shaw has been published in various journal both online and print, most recently Serendipity Literary Magazine and African American Review. His upcoming chapbook, The House of Men, will be published…
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Cherene M. Sherrard
Cherene Sherrard was born in Los Angeles. She is currently Associate Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-where she teaches nineteenth and twentieth century American and African American literature,…
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Evie Shockley
Evie Shockley is a poet and scholar. Her most recent poetry collections are the new black (Wesleyan, 2011) and semiautomatic (Wesleyan, 2017); both won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the…
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Kevin Simmonds
Kevin Simmonds is a writer, musician and filmmaker originally from New Orleans. His books include Mad for Meat, Collective Brightness: LGBTIQ Poets on Faith, Religion & Spirituality and Ota Benga…
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Danez Smith
Danez Smith is a Black, queer, poz writer & performer from St. Paul, MN. Danez is the author of [insert] boy (YesYes Books, 2014), winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and…
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John Warner Smith
John Warner Smith’s most recent collection of poems, Spirits of the Gods, was published by UL Press in 2017. Other collections include Soul Be A Witness (MadHat Press, 2016) and…
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Tracy K. Smith
Tracy K. Smith is the author of The Body’s Question (Graywolf Press 2003), which won the 2002 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, and Duende (Graywolf Press, 2007), winner of the James…
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L'Oréal Snell
L’Oréal Snell’s poems have appeared in Ithaca College’s IC View, Coon Bidness /SO4 Literary Magazine, Reverie: Midwest African American Literature, Cave Canem’s XI and XII anthologies, and theblackbottom.com. She has been a featured poet at the…
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Christina Springer
Christina Springer is a text artist who uses poetry, dance, theatre,film and other visual expressions. As an Outreach Artist for the Historic Royal Palaces, she delivered four projects with youth:…
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Christopher D Stackhouse
Christopher Stackhouse is the author of Slip, Corollary Press 2005. He is co-author of the collaborative book Seismosis 1913 Press 2006, that features his drawings in philosophical discourse with texts…
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Lolita Stewart-White
Lolita Stewart-White is a poet who lives and works in Miami. She is a Cave Canem alumni and a Pushcart nominee. Her work has appeared in The Iowa Review, Rattle,…
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Shelby Stokes
Shelby Stokes has taught Upper School English at the Fieldston School since 2000.
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Dana L. Stringer
Dana L. Stringer is an Atlanta-based poet, playwright, and writing instructor. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. She is the author of the chapbook…
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Laura Swearingen-Steadwell
Laura Swearingen-Steadwell’s second collection, All Blue So Late, won the Cave Canem Northwestern University Poetry Prize and was published by Northwestern University Press. She lives in Manhattan, and will be…
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Pamela L Taylor
Pamela Taylor is a data guru by day and a poet by night. As co-organizer of Living Poetry, she sends out the Monday morning poetry prompts. She has a doctorate…
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Samantha Thornhill
Trinidadian born Samantha Thornhill wrote her first poem at 11. She earned her Bachelors in creative writing from FSU & her Masters in poetry from UVA. As a performance poet, she has travelled as far as South…
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Cedric L Tillman
Cedric Tillman hails from Anson County, NC and was raised in Charlotte. He is a graduate of UNCC and The American University’s Creative Writing MFA program. In 2011, his manuscript,…
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Ashley Toliver
Ashley Toliver splits her time between Portland, OR and Providence, RI where she is a first-year MFA candidate at Brown University. Her work can be found in Third Coast, Caketrain,…
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Imani Tolliver
Imani Tolliver is a poet, artist, and educator. She is a Cave Canem Fellow and served as Poet Laureate for the Watts Towers Arts Center. Tolliver is a recipient of the…
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Qiana U.S. Towns
Qiana Towns earned a MFA from Bowling Green State University, and a MA from Central Michigan University where she served as poetry editor for the online literary journal Temenos. Her…
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Jacqueline A. Trimble
Jacqueline Allen Trimble, Ph.D., lives and writes in Montgomery, Alabama, where she is the chairperson of Languages and Literatures at Alabama State University. Her work has appeared in The Offing, Blue Lake…
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Kevin Blane Vaughn
Kevin Vaughn is a doctoral student in English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Georgia. He holds an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University and is a graduate…
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Frank X Walker
Multi-disciplinary artist and Kentucky native, Frank X Walker, is the co-founder of the Affrilachian Poets and creator of the word Affrilachian. He is the author of five collections of poetry:Affrilachia,…
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Lillien Waller
Lillien Waller is a poet and editor of the anthology American Ghost: Poets on Life after Industry (Stockport Flats, 2011), which explores the impact of deindustrialization on community, culture, personal…
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Wendy S. Walters
Wendy S. Walters’ work resides at the intersection of the poem, essay and lyric drama. She is the author of the forthcoming book of poetry, Longer I Wait, More You Love…
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Nagueyalti Warren
Nagueyalti Warren is a poet and professor of pedagogy emerita in African American Studies, Emory University. Her poetry has appeared in Essence Magazine , African American Review, Obsidian and anthologized in The Ringing…
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Maya Washington
Maya Washington is a writer, actor, filmmaker, and arts educator making a difference in the world. She holds a BA from the University of Southern California and an MFA from…
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Claudette Webster
Claudette M. Webster is a native of Jamaica, West Indies, and an educator, community organizer and facilitator. She is a Cave Canem Fellow (2003, 2004) and a founding member of The Berkshire…
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Arisa White
Arisa White received her MFA from UMass, Amherst, and is the author of Perfect on Accident, You’re the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened, Black Pearl, Post Pardon, A Penny Saved, and Hurrah’s Nest. Her poetry…
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Marvin White
Marvin K. White is the author of four collections of poetry published by RedBone Press: Our Name Be Witness; Status; and the two Lammy-nominated collections last rights and nothin’ ugly fly. His poetry has been…
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Simone White
Simone White is from Philadelphia. She is a graduate of Wesleyan University, Harvard Law School and The New School’s Graduate Program in Creative Writing. She is the author of House…
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Carolyn Beard Whitlow
Awarded residencies at Yaddo, Soul Mountain, and Hedgebrook, Carolyn Beard Whitlow is Dana Professor of English at Guilford College in Greensboro, NC, where she has taught Creative Writing and African-American…
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Marcus Freddie Wicker
Marcus Wicker’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in jubilat, Crab Orchard Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Harpur Palate, Rattle, Ninth Letter, Sou’Wester, Mythium, DIAGRAM, and cream city review, among other journals.…
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Tonya Wiley
Tonya Wiley is a poet, freelance writer, teaching artist and educator from New Haven, Connecticut. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from The University of Central Oklahoma and is…
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Ian Williams
Ian Williams is the author of You Know Who You Are, (poems, Wolsak and Wynn, 2010) and Not Anyone’s Anything (fiction, Freehand, forthcoming 2011). His writing has appeared in Gargoyle,…
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Lorelei Williams
Lorelei’s work has been recognized through fellowships from the Breadloaf Young Writer’s Conference and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She has performed throughout NYC and globally. Lorelei’s writings…
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Phillip B Williams
0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false Phillip B. Williams is a Chicago, Illinois native. He is the author of the chapbooks Bruised Gospels (Arts in…
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El Williams III
El Williams III is a St. Louis native. His poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Alaska Quarterly Review, The Journal, River Styx, Vinyl and elsewhere. He has received…
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Keith S. Wilson
Keith S. Wilson spent the first 12 years of his life growing up in Torrance, California. From there, he moved to Northern Kentucky where he currently resides. He received his…
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L. Lamar Wilson
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 L. LAMAR WILSON, Virginia Tech MFA ’10 and English PhD candidate at UNC-Chapel Hill, is the author of SACRILEGION,…
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Yolanda Wisher
Yolanda Wisher earned a B.A. in English/Black Studies from Lafayette College and a M.A. in Creative Writing/Poetry from Temple University. At the age of 23, she was named the first…
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Demetrice Anntía Worley
Demetrice Anntía Worley, an Illinois native, received a D.A. in English, Composition Theory and Pedagogy, with a concentration in creative writing, Illinois State University; a M.A. in English, University of Illinois,…
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Sharon Dennis Wyeth
Sharon Dennis Wyeth is the author of over fifty books for children, including “Something Beautiful” a Parents’ Best Book, and “Corey’s Underground Railroad Diaries.” Her work has been honored by The Children’s…
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