EDUCATION

Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (Poetry), Jan. 2006
Graduate Certificate in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Aug. 2005
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
 
Master of Arts in English and Creative Writing, Dec. 2002
Iowa State University, Ames, IA       

Bachelor of Arts in English, minor in Communication Arts (Magna Cum Laude, Honors), May 2001                                                
St Francis College, Brooklyn Heights, NY

COLLECTIONS

(Un)Becoming Gretel (limited edition chapbook), Kalamazoo Book Arts Center, (Apr. 2022)

Honeyfish, (winner Green Rose Prize), New Issues Press (US, Apr. 2019) & Peepal Tree Press (UK, Jul. 2019)

Difficult Fruit, Peepal Tree Press, Leeds, UK. Feb. 2014

Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of Black Poetry, ed.with Joanne Gabbin, Northwestern University Press, Jan. 2020

(Selected) POETRY PUBLICATIONS

“Be/Held,” Worlds Within and Without Catalogue, Jan. 2025

“Litany for Ms. Lucille,” Callaloo, Vol. 42, No.3

“Writer’s Block,” and “Immigrant Duplex,” Lily Poetry Review, Nov. 2024

“Ode to the Pantsuit: Remix,” Poets for Harris, Oct. 2024

Stand Your Ground,” and “Creature Gretel,” New American Studies Journal, (Germany), Vol. 75, 2024

“Catalog of What We Attempt to Survive,” The Brooklyn Rail, Jul./Aug. 2024

“Douen,” Poemhood: Our Black Revival, Harper Collins, Jan. 2024

“How could I have known I would need to remember your laughter,” Poets.org poem-a-day, Jul. 2022

“Soucouyant Gretel,” and “Blue Devil Gretel,” STAND Feb. 2022

“Gretel’s Note on Norm,al” Shenandoah, Fall 2021

“Confession,” “Bedtime Story Pt 1,” Bedtime Story Pt 2, “Gretel as Crone,” Waxwing, Oct. 2021

“Divination,” Best American Poets, Scribner Sept. 2021

“Charlottesville, Virginia,” Poem-a-Day Virginia (selected by VA Poet Laureate, Luisa Igloria), Apr. 2021

“Love in A♭,” Why to These Rocks, Heyday Books, Mar. 2021

“Nothing to Declare,” Poets.org poem-a-day, Feb. 2021

Selected poems, Cutleaf, Feb. 2021

“For My Brother(s),” Stone Gathering: A Reader, Winter 2020/21

Selected poems, More than the Pain: Affect and Emotion in the Black Lives Matter Movement, SUNY, Feb. 2021

“Divination,” Orion Magazine, Nov. 2020

“Killed Boy, Beautiful World,” Verse Daily, Nov. 2020

Selected poems, Show Us Your Papers, Main Street Rag, Nov. 2020

“Anything but an Elegy,” and “Endarkenment,” Isele Magazine, Oct. 2020

“Heaven?” Aunt Chloe: A Journal of Artful Candor, Issue 2020.w.2

“For My Brother(s),” Poets.org poem-a-day, Aug. 2020

“Gretel: Unmothering,” Choice Words: Writers on Abortion, Haymarket Books, Apr. 2020

"Honeyfish," Sundress Publications, Feb. 2020

“Poetry After the Verdict,” and “Elegy” Revisiting the Elegy in the Black Lives Matter Era, Routledge, Feb. 2020

“Przycisk” [Play], Magazyn Wizje [Visions], Iss. 8. Jan. 2020

(Selected) NON-FICTION PUBLICATIONS

“Elegy at the Edge of Infinity,” Solastalgia (Apr. 2023)

“Disquisition on Picasso’s Studio,” Beyond the Frame, Mar. 2022

“You is Kind, You is Smart, You is Important: The Black Female Professor as “The Help,”” Teaching Black, Nov. 2021

AWARDS, FELLOWSHIPS, & RESIDENCIES:

1. S. Eliot House Residency, Oct 2024

US Artist Nomination, 2022

James Madison University Purple “Agency” Star, 2022

SCHEV Outstanding Faculty Award, 2022

Finalist, Library of Virginia Literary Award in Poetry, 2020

Longlist, OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, 2020

Finalist, NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Poetry, 2020

(Selected) CONFERENCES, PRESENTATIONS & READINGS

Tufts University Reading, Boston, MA, Oct 2024

Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival V, Laureates of the Caribbean, Sept. 2024

Reading with Leona Sevick, New Dominion Bookshop, Charlottesville, VA Jun. 2024

CFK Poetics Series Featured Reader, College of the Florida Keys, Key West, FL. Apr. 2024

 “Celebrating Thirty Years of Furious Flower,” (moderator) & “Furious Flower Presents Nikky Finney, Anastacia Reneé and Malika Booker,” (moderator), Associated Writers and Writing Programs, Kansas City, MO. Feb. 2024

Dancescapes, reading with JMU Virginia Repertory Dance Company, Harrisonburg, VA Dec 2023

Anatol Rodgers Memorial Lecture, University of The Bahamas, Nassau, Nov. 2023

“What Did I See to Be? Writing in the Spirit of Lucille Clifton” Wheatley Poetry Festival, Jackson, MS. Nov 2023

Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA. Oct 2023

An Evening of Good Grief, part of Be(Holding: Love and Loss, Harrisonburg, VA

Poetry Society of Virginia Centennial Celebration Keynote, May 2023

James Madison University Graduate Commencement Speaker, May 2023

NPR’s Books and Brews, Harrisonburg, Apr. 2023

“Landscapes of Black Poetry,” Oak Springs Garden Foundation, Apr. 2023

“Furious Flower Poetry Hour,” Virginia Festival of the Book, Charlottesville, VA Mar. 2023

“Contemporary Chantuelles: A Reading of Caribbean Poetry,” AWP, Seattle, Mar. 2023

Outstanding Faculty Awards Speaker, State Council for Higher Education in Virginia, Richmond, VA Mar. 2023

“Making Home,” With Good Reason, Feb. 2023

“COTTON: A Conversation,” Washington Performing Arts Forum, Feb. 2023

Patrick Hayes Writers’ Series, William and Mary, Sept. 2022

Festival of Literary Arts, Prince Georges Arts and Humanities Council, online, Apr. 2022

Poets in Print, Kalamazoo Book Arts Center, online, Apr. 2022

Georgia Poetry Circuit (10 campus reading and class visit), online, Feb. & Apr. 2022

Poet Laureate (Prince George’s County) series “From A Poet’s Point of View” reading and conversation with Jason Reynolds, Joanne Gabbin, and Joy Alford (Sistah Joy), online, Oct. 2021

Poems for a New World Reading, Galway, Ireland, (online), Jun. 2021

Brooklyn Rail Radical Reading, (online), May 2021

Lehigh University Friends of the Library, (online), Apr. 2021

Zong! Durational Reading w/M. NourbeSe Philip (online), Dec. 2020

National Library and Information Services (NALIS) Reading, (Trinidad, online), Nov. 2020

Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), (online), Nov. 2020

Library of Virginia finalist reading, (online) Oct. 2020

Fairfield University Humanities Institute Hindsight Series, (online), Oct. 2020

Nauguatauk Review Reading, Associated Writers and Writing Programs Conference. San Antonio, Texas. Mar. 3-9, 2020

Trinity University, San Antonio, TX, Mar. 2020

Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, VA, Feb 2020

Cave Canem New Works Reading Series, New York University, New York, Feb. 2020

COLLABORATIONS & COMMISSIONS:

“Furious Flower IV Podcast” collaboration with Virginia humanities, Sep. 2024

“They Took My Sister,” commission for “Cotton: A Multimedia Art Event based on John Dowell’s photography” by Lyricfest, Presented at the Kennedy Center (2/28) and the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral (2/25), Feb. 2023.

“Either/Or,” a collaboration with visual artist Matthew Fisher for www.intermissionmuseum.org, a curated art space, Feb. 2021

“#SayHerNames--Women of the Movement” musical program with Lyricfest, Jan. 2021

“Pilgrimage,” choreographed live performance and video, with BIODANCE dance company, Dr. Missy Phol-Smith (Dancer, Choreographer, Director Program of Dance and Movement, University of Rochester) and W. Michelle Harris (Media Engineer, Associate Professor, School of Interactive Games and Media, University of Rochester). Sep. 2020

“The Gretel Project,” multimedia immersion experience, with Catherine Chung (Writer), Tomiko Jones (Visual Artist), Sidney Boquiren (Composer), Amy Ressler (Director). Mar. 2015