poets stand proud as you can see
Puerto Rican poet and playwright, Miguel Piñero, was a leading member of the Nuyorican literary movement and founder of the Nuyorican Poets Café—an influential forum in Alphabet City known as a haven for music, poetry, theater, and comedy. Piñero migrated from Puerto Rico to Manhattan in 1950. Enmeshed in poverty and abandoned by …
poets give us instructions on not giving up
Born March 28, 1976, Ada Limón is originally from Sonoma, California. As a child, she was greatly influenced by the visual arts and artists, including her mother, Stacia Brady. In 2001 she received an MFA from the Creative Writing Program at New York University. Her first collection of poetry, Lucky Wreck (Autumn …
poets hold the light of a night with stars
Born in Saigon, Vietnamese poet and novelist Quan Barry was raised on the north shore of Boston. She earned a BA from the University of Virginia and an MFA from the University of Michigan. Barry is the author of the poetry collections Asylum (2001), Controvertibles (2004), Water Puppets (2011), and Loose Strife (2015). She also wrote the …
poets are freedom fighters
Sarojini Naidu (13 February 1879 – 2 March 1949), also known as The Nightingale of India, was a child prodigy, Indian independence activist, and poet. She was a brilliant student. Proficient in Urdu, Telugu, English, Bengali, and Persian, at the age of twelve, Sarojini Naidu attained national fame when she topped the …
poets speak of accents
Denice Frohman is an award-winning poet, writer, performer, and educator. Born and raised in New York City, she is a CantoMundo Fellow, 2014 National Association of Latino Arts & Cultures grant recipient, 2013 Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion, 2013 Hispanic Choice Award winner (Creative Artist of the Year), and former …
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 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 …
