Education

MFA Indiana University 2006

BA University of Kentucky 1996

Academic interests

Black Arts Movement, ethnic poetry collectives, art for social change

Awards

Winner, Lexi Rudnitsky Editor's Choice Award, Persea Books, 2011; Finalist, NAACP Image Award (Outstanding Literary Work-Poetry), 2010; Finalist, Hurston/Wright Legacy Award,2010; Finalist, Wick Poetry Prize, 2007; Finalist, Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award, 2007; Pushcart Prize Nominee, 2006

Publications

Books:  dying in the scarecrows arms (poetry), Persea Books, 2018; \blak\ \al-fə bet\ (poetry), Persea Books, 2013; Cooling Board: A Long-Playing Poem, Red Hen Press, 2009.

Poetry in:  Anthologies: Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry, Northwestern University Press, 2019; Resisting Arrest: Poems to Stretch the Sky, Jacar Press, 2016; The Break Beat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, Haymarket Books, 2015; The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, University of Georgia Press, 2007.

Journals:  Callaloo, Crab Orchard Review, The Indianapolis Review, The Louisville Review, Ninth Letter, and Washington Square Review.