Enjoy an afternoon of phenomenal poetry and stimulating conversation! Since the publication of Natasha Trethewey's Domestic Work (Graywolf, 2000), the Cave Canem Poetry Prize has launched the careers of poets such as Major Jackson, Donika Kelly, Rickey Laurentiis and Tracy K. Smith. The prize has not only changed the trajectory of individual lives, it has also changed the face of literature. Cave Canem Prize winners Major Jackson, Donika Kelly and Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon read their prize-winning work, followed by a moderated conversation with Julian Randall about the role the prize has played in their creative lives.
Open to AWP pass-holders. For more information on how to register, visit awpwriter.org.
Major Jackson is the author of five books of poetry, including The Absurd Man (W. W. Norton, 2020), Roll Deep (W. W. Norton, 2017), Holding Company (W. W. Norton, 2012), Hoops (W. W. Norton, 2007) and Leaving Saturn (Uni. of Georgia Press, 2002), which won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize. A recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and National Endowment for the Arts, among others, Jackson has been honored by the Pew Fellowship in the Arts and the Witter Bynner Foundation in conjunction with the Library of Congress. Jackson is a professor at the University of Vermont and serves as the Poetry Editor of The Harvard Review.
Donika Kelly is the author of The Renunciations, forthcoming from Graywolf Press in 2021, Bestiary (Graywolf, 2016), and the chapbook Aviarium (fivehundred places, 2017). A Cave Canem Graduate Fellow and winner the 2018 Kate Tufts Discovery Prize and a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, Donika works as an Assistant Professor at Baruch College.
Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon is the author of ] Open Interval [ (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009), a finalist the National Book Award, and Black Swan (Pitt Poetry Series, 2002), winner Cave Canem Poetry Prize. She has written plays and lyrics for The Cherry, an Ithaca arts collective, and in 2018 her work was featured in Courage Everywhere, celebrating women’s suffrage and the fight for political equality, at National Theatre London.
Julian Randall is a living queer Black poet from Chicago. He is a fellow of Cave Canem, CantoMundo and the winner of a Pushcart Prize. He holds an MFA in Poetry from Ole Miss and his work can be found in POETRY, New York Times Magazine, Ploughshares and Vibe Magazine. His first book, Refuse (Pitt, 2018), won the 2017 Cave Canem Poetry Prize selected by Vievee Francis and was a finalist for a 2019 NAACP Image Award. He tweets @JulianThePoet and is currently based in Minneapolis where he serves as the Milkweed Editions Fellow.