poets celebrate their own survival
A prolific and widely respected poet, Lucille Clifton’s work emphasizes endurance and strength through adversity, focusing particularly on African-American experience and family life. Awarding the prestigious Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize to Clifton in 2007, the judges remarked that “One always feels the looming humaneness around Lucille Clifton’s poems—it is a …
poets lead us to higher ground
Poet, essayist, and translator Indran Amirthanayagam was born in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). He was raised in Sri Lanka, London, and Honolulu. Amirthanayagam has authored ten poetry collections, including The Elephants of Reckoning (1993), Ceylon, R.I.P. (2001), The Splintered Face (2008), and Uncivil War (2013). He writes, translates, and publishes poetry and essays in English, Spanish, French, …
poets merely pose for photographs
The son of migrant farm workers, Juan Felipe Herrera was educated at UCLA and Stanford University, and he earned his MFA from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His numerous poetry collections include 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross the Border: Undocuments 1971-2007, Half of the World in Light: New and Selected Poems (2008), …
poets take us on the trail of tears
A Chickasaw novelist, essayist, and environmentalist, Linda Hogan was born in Denver, Colorado. She earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs and an MA in English and creative writing from the University of Colorado-Boulder. Intimately connected to her political and spiritual concerns, Hogan’s poetry deals with issues …
poets teach us about mourning, ghosts, memory, and birth
Cherokee author, poet, scholar and activist Qwo-Li Driskill is a Colorado native, earning their bachelor’s degree from the University of Northern Colorado. Following that, they went on to receive their M.A. from Anitoch University Seattle and a Ph.D in Rhetoric and Writing from Michigan State University. Driskill has published numerous essays, …
poets sit at a kitchen table
Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on May 9, 1951, and is a member of the Mvskoke/Creek Nation. Her books of poetry include Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings (W. W. Norton, 2015); How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems (W. W. Norton, 2002); A Map to the Next World: Poems (W. W. Norton, 2000); The …
poets cannot be neutralized
Born in Fukuoka, Japan, Mitsuye Yamada moved to Seattle, Washington, in 1926 with her family. Her father was an interpreter for the US Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the family was taken to an internment camp in 1942 when her father was wrongfully accused of spying. Yamada and her brother …
poets touch the wound
Patricia Smith has been called “a testament to the power of words to change lives.” She is the author of seven books of poetry, including Incendiary Art(2017), winner of an NAACP Image Award and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award; Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah (2012), which won the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy …
poets tell important stories
Emmy Pérez is the author of With the River on Our Face (University of Arizona Press, 2016) and Solstice (Swan Scythe Press, 2003 and 2011). Originally from Santa Ana, California, she earned her BA from the University of Southern California and her MFA from Columbia University. Her work has been published in journals such as North …
poets speak truth to power
Danez Smith was born St. Paul, Minnesota. They are the author of Don’t Call Us Dead (2017), a finalist for the National Book Award; Boy (2014), winner of the Lambda Literary Award and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award; and the chapbook hands on ya knees (Penmanship Books, 2013). Smith is the recipient of fellowships from the McKnight …
