Ariana Benson

Ariana Benson was born in Norfolk, Virginia. She graduated from Spelman College and holds MA degrees in both poetic practice and scriptwriting, which she earned as a Marshall Scholar.

Benson’s debut collection, Black Pastoral (University of Georgia Press, 2023), won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the John Leonard Prize for Best First Book, presented by the National Book Critics Circle. A Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellow, she is also the winner of the 2024 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets, the Furious Flower Poetry Prize, and the Graybeal-Gowen Prize for Virginia Poets.

Benson facilitates creative writing and storytelling workshops for students at historically Black colleges and universities.