Nathaniel Mackey is an

American poet The poets listed below were either born in the United States or else published much of their poetry while living in that country. A B C D E F G H I–J K L M N O P Q * George Quasha (born 1942) R S T U–V ...

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literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. ...

and

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, or ...

. He is the Reynolds Price Professor of Creative Writing at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist Jam ...

and a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets. Mackey is currently teaching a poetry workshop at

. He has been editor and publisher of '' Hambone'' since 1982 and he won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2006. In 2014, he was awarded the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, and in 2015 he won Yale's Bollingen Prize for American Poetry.

Biography

Nathaniel Mackey was born in 1947 in Miami, Florida and moved to California at age three when his parents split. As a teen, he started listening to jazz at his brother's suggestion, which later influenced his work. He visited

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

as a high school student along with Gene Washington where he was able to see live jazz in Manhattan. The trip was instrumental in the decision to attend the university. After he graduated with a BA, he returned to Southern California to teach algebra at a junior high school. In 1970, Mackey enrolled in

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

for his doctorate. His dissertation was about the Black Mountain poets and the poetry they created with the human rhythms of breath and utterance. After graduation, he taught at University of Wisconsin and the University of Southern California before moving on to the literature department at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, University of Califor ...

, Santa Cruz in 1979. He held that position until 2010 when he moved with his family to North Carolina to take a position at

Poetry

Mackey's books of poetry include the chapbooks ''Four for Trane'' (1978) and ''Septet for the End of Time'' (1983); and the books ''Eroding Witness'' (1985), ''School of Udhra'' (1993), ''Whatsaid Serif'' (1998), ''Splay Anthem'' (2006), ''Nod House'' (2011), and ''Blue Fasa'' (2016), as well as the books ''Tej Bet'', ''So's Notice'', and ''Nerve Church'', which were published together as a boxed set called ''Double Trio'' in 2021. In 2016, Black Ocean Books published a collection called ''Lay Ghost'' that featured songs that later appeared in ''So's Notice''. Mackey's poetry combines

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musical traditions, and

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poetic experiment. His several ongoing serial projects explore the relationship of poetry and historical memory, as well as the ritual power of poetry and song.

Fiction

Mackey has published five volumes of an ongoing prose project entitled ''From A Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate''. The books are titled ''Bedouin Hornbook'' (1986), ''Djbot Baghostus's Run'' (1993), ''Atet A. D.'' (2001), ''Bass Cathedral'' (2008), and ''Late Arcade'' (2017). ''Bedouin Hornbook'' was inspired by the experience of seeing a jazz ensemble in which he was the only person in the audience. His series of letters explores playing in a band like that. The book is also the first in the “Broken Bottle” series.

Criticism and editing

In 1974, Mackey became an editor of the poetry journal '' Hambone'', later becoming the sole editor and publisher in 1982. Mackey is the author of ''Discrepant Engagement: Dissonance, Cross-Culturality, and Experimental Writing'' (1993), an influential book of

literary theory Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, mor ...

, and more recently of ''Paracritical Hinge: Essays, Talks, Notes, Interviews'' (2004). He co-edited ''Moment's Notice: Jazz in Poetry and Prose'' with Art Lange (1993).

Personal life

At Stanford, Mackey met

Gloria Jean Watkins Gloria Jean Watkins (September 25, 1952December 15, 2021), better known by her pen name bell hooks, was an American author and social activist who was Distinguished Professor in Residence at Berea College. She is best known for her writings on ...

(bell hooks), whom he dated until the mid 1980s. He married Pascale Gaitet, a specialist in French literature, in 1991. The couple later had three children: Naima, Gabriella, and Ian. In 1999, he was diagnosed with

sarcoidosis Sarcoidosis (also known as ''Besnier-Boeck-Schaumann disease'') is a disease involving abnormal collections of inflammatory cells that form lumps known as granulomata. The disease usually begins in the lungs, skin, or lymph nodes. Less commonly af ...

after a cut on his forehead didn't heal.

Awards

* 1993

Whiting Award The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and ...

* 2006

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

, Poetry, for ''Splay Anthem''"National Book Awards – 2006"

National Book Foundation The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established, "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America". Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc.,Edwin McDowell. "Book Notes: 'The Joy Luc ...

. Retrieved 2012-04-08.
(With acceptance speech by Mackey, essay by Megan Snyder-Camp from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog, and other materials.) * 2007

Foundation for Contemporary Arts The Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA), is a nonprofit based foundation in New York City that offers financial support and recognition to contemporary performing and visual artists through awards for artistic innovation and potential. It was ...

Grants to Artists Award * 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship * 2014 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize * 2015

Bollingen Prize The Bollingen Prize for Poetry is a literary honor bestowed on an American poet in recognition of the best book of new verse within the last two years, or for lifetime achievement.

for American Poetry "Nathaniel Mackey wins Yale’s 2015 Bollingen Prize for Poetry"
''Yale News''. Retrieved 10 February 2015. * 2016 Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry for Lifetime Achievement

Resources

External links

The Ocean’s Tide: Parentheses in Kamau Brathwaite’s and Nathaniel Mackey’s Decolonial Poetics
at Cordite Poetry Review
Mackey's page at The Academy of American Poets

Mackey's EPC author page

Profile at The Whiting Foundation

Mackey was a Guest of the ILB ( ''Internationales Literatufestival Berlin'' / Germany ) in 2005
"Add-Verse" a poetry-photo-video project Mackey participated inStuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
Emory University
Nathaniel Mackey papers, 1947-2011
: {{DEFAULTSORT:Mackey, Nathaniel 1947 births Living people African-American novelists National Book Award winners American male novelists American male poets American literary critics People from Miami African-American poets 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people