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PEN Oakland Awards
The PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award is for U.S. multicultural writers, to "promote works of excellence by writers of all cultural and racial backgrounds and to educate both the public and the media as to the nature of multicultural work." It was founded by PEN Oakland in 1991 and named in honor of Josephine Miles. PEN Oakland was founded in 1989. The award was dubbed the "Blue Collar PEN Award" by ''The New York Times''. In 1997, Pen Oakland inaugurated its PEN Oakland/Gary Webb Anti-Censorship Award to protest censorship practices within the U.S. Other awards are the PEN Oakland/Reginald Lockett Lifetime Achievement Award established in 2006; and the PEN Oakland/Adelle Foley Award established in 2016 and "given to a work, not fiction or poetry, that has done much to improve the relations between people in American society." Although PEN Oakland unsuccessfully attempted to become the USA's third PEN center, the attempt did succeed in opening the doors for PEN Oakland to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation is a United States literary society that seeks to promote poetry and lyricism in the wider culture. It was formed from ''Poetry'' magazine, which it continues to publish, with a 2003 gift of $200 million from philanthropist Ruth Lilly. Its mission, which was updated in 2022, is "to amplify poetry and celebrate poets by fostering spaces for all to create, experience, and share poetry." In partial furtherance of this objective, the foundation runs a blog called ''Harriet''. Poets who have blogged at ''Harriet'' on behalf of The Poetry Foundation include Christian Bök, Stephanie Burt, Wanda Coleman, Kwame Dawes, Linh Dinh, Camille Dungy, Annie Finch, Forrest Gander, Rigoberto González, Cathy Park Hong, Bhanu Kapil, Ange Mlinko, Eileen Myles, Craig Santos Perez, A. E. Stallings, Edwin Torres, and Patricia Smith. In addition, the foundation provides several awards for poets and poetry. It also hosts free workshops, readings, exhibitions, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gilbert Hernandez
Gilberto Hernández (born February 1, 1957), usually credited as Gilbert Hernandez and also by the nickname Beto (), is an American cartoonist. He is best known for his ''Palomar''/''Heartbreak Soup'' stories in ''Love and Rockets (comics), Love and Rockets'', an Alternative comics, alternative comic book he shared with his brothers Jaime Hernandez, Jaime and Mario Hernandez (comics), Mario. Early life Gilbert Hernández was born and grew up in Oxnard, California to a Mexican father and Texas-born mother. He had five brothers and one sister, raised by their mother and grandmother, as their father was rarely around. They were exposed to comic books early in life through their mother, who passed on her love of the medium to her children. Young Gilbert read all he could, with the exception of romance comics. He set his passions on becoming a graphic storyteller, learning everything he could by studying what he found in comics, while developing his drawing skills through constan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nikki Giovanni
Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni Jr. (June 7, 1943 – December 9, 2024) was an American poet, writer, commentator, activist and educator. One of the world's best-known African-American poets, her work includes poetry anthologies, poetry recordings, and nonfiction essays, and covers topics ranging from race and social issues to children's literature. She won numerous awards, including the Langston Hughes Medal and the NAACP Image Award. She was nominated for a 2004 Grammy Award for her poetry album, ''The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection''. Additionally, she was named as one of Oprah Winfrey's 25 " Living Legends". Giovanni was a member of The Wintergreen Women Writers Collective. Giovanni gained initial fame in the late 1960s as one of the foremost authors of the Black Arts Movement. Influenced by the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement of the period, her early work provides a strong, militant African-American perspective, leading one writer to dub her the "Poet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daphne Brooks
Daphne Brooks (born 1968) is an American writer and black studies scholar who is William R. Kenan, Jr. professor of African American studies, American Studies, Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Music at Yale University and is also director of graduate studies. She specializes in African American literary cultural performance studies, especially 19th century and trans-Atlantic culture. Brooks is also a rock music lover and has attributed her research interests in black performance to being a fan of rock music since a very young age. She has written three books, ''Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound'' (Belknap Press, 2021), ''Bodies in Dissent: Spectacular Performances of Race and Freedom, 1850–1910'' (Duke University Press, 2006) and ''Jeff Buckley’s Grace'' (Continuum, 2005). Early life Brooks was born in Redwood City, California in 1968. Her parents moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1950. Brooks' father earned a B.A. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Derf Backderf
John Backderf (born October 31, 1959), also known as Derf or Derf Backderf, is an American cartoonist. He is most famous for his graphic novels, especially '' My Friend Dahmer'', the international bestseller which won an Angoulême Prize, and earlier for his comic strip ''The City'', which appeared in a number of alternative newspapers from 1990 to 2014. In 2006 Derf won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for cartooning. Backderf has been based in Cleveland, Ohio, for much of his career. Early life Backderf grew up in Richfield, Ohio, the son of a chemist. He attended Eastview Junior High and Revere High School, where one of his classmates was future serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Backderf graduated high school in 1978, and attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh for six months, before dropping out. The following year, he worked as a garbageman back in his hometown. Backderf then attended, and graduated from, Ohio State University with a BA in journalism. Backderf was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nguyen Phan Que Mai
Nguyễn (阮) (sometimes abbreviated as Ng̃) is the most common surname of the Vietnamese people. Outside of Vietnam, the surname is commonly rendered without diacritics as ''Nguyen''. By some estimates 30 to 39 percent of Vietnamese people bear this surname.Lê Trung Hoa, ''Họ và tên người Việt Nam'', NXB Khoa học - Xã hội, 2005 Origin and usage is the transcription of the Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation of the character 阮, which originally was used to write a name of a state in Gansu or ruan, an ancient Chinese instrument. The same Chinese character is often romanized as in Mandarin and as in Cantonese. The first recorded mention of a person surnamed Nguyễn is a description dating AD 317, of a journey to Giao Châu undertaken by Eastern Jin dynasty officer Nguyễn Phu and his family. Many events in Vietnamese history have contributed to the name's prominence. In 1232, after usurping the Lý dynasty, Trần Thủ Độ forced the descendants of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jennifer Foerster
Jennifer Elise Foerster is a poet, writer, and teacher. She has published three poetry books and served as Associate Editor for ''When the Light of the World Was Subdued Our Songs Came Through, A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry'' (2020), and has been published in numerous journal publications and anthologies. Her 2013 book ''Leaving Tulsa'' was a finalist for the shortlist of the 2014 PEN Open Book Award. Early life and family Foerster's father was in the U.S. Air Force, so she grew up living in many cities in the U.S. and Europe. While she is now based in San Francisco, California, Foerster belongs to the Muscogee Nation, a Native American Nation located in Oklahoma. In addition to her Mvskoke relatives, she is of German and Dutch heritage. Education Foerster earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts, Master of Fine Arts from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and PhD in Literary Arts from the University of Denver. She also has received f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
LeAnne Howe
LeAnne Howe (born April 29, 1951, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) is an American author and Eidson Distinguished Professor in the Department of English at the University of Georgia, Athens. She previously taught American Indian Studies and English at the University of Minnesota and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Early life and education LeAnne Howe was born into a Choctaw family in Edmond, Oklahoma, and attended local schools as a child. She later attended Oklahoma State University, where she majored in English. She is a Choctaw Nation citizen. Years later, Howe returned to studies, gaining a Master of Fine Arts degree in 2000 in Creative Writing from Vermont College of Norwich University. Over the next few years, she began to shift toward the academic world. She taught, lectured and developed courses in Native American Studies at the University of Iowa and at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. Career Howe is an author, playwright, scholar, and poet. She ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joy Harjo
Joy Harjo ( ; born May 9, 1951) is an American poet, musician, playwright, and author. She served as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate from 2019 to 2022, the first Native American to hold that honor. She was also only the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to have served three terms (after Robert Pinsky). Harjo is a seventh-generation Monahwee daughter (also known as "Menawa"). Additionally, Harjo is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation (Este Mvskokvlke) and belongs to Oce Vpofv ( Hickory Ground). She is an important figure in the second wave of the literary Native American Renaissance of the late 20th century. She studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts, completed her undergraduate degree at University of New Mexico in 1976, and earned an MFA degree at the University of Iowa in its creative writing program. In addition to writing books and other publications, Harjo has taught in numerous United States universities, performed internationally at poetry readings ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli Greene (; born October 3, 1975) is an American rapper. He first earned recognition through his collaboration with fellow Brooklyn rapper Mos Def (now known as Yasiin Bey) in 1997, when they formed the group Black Star. Kweli's musical career continued with solo success including collaborations with producers and rappers Kanye West, Just Blaze, and Pharrell Williams. In 2011, Kweli founded his own record label, Javotti Media. Early life Born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, Kweli grew up in a household in Brooklyn's Park Slope. His mother, Brenda Greene, is an English professor at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York, and his father is an administrator at Adelphi University. His younger brother, Jamal Greene, is a professor of constitutional law at Columbia Law School and a graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School, and former clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court. As a youth, Kweli was drawn to Afrocen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gloria Gervitz
Gloria Gervitz (29 March 1943 – 19 April 2022) was a Mexican poet and translator of Ukrainian Jewish descent. Biography Gervitz was born in Mexico City on 29 March 1943. Her paternal family arrived to Mexico in 1929, when her father was 9 years old.Gloria Gervitz y 'Migraciones': el poema de una vida She studied at the . [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alison Bechdel
Alison Bechdel ( ; born September 10, 1960) is an American cartoonist. Originally known for the long-running comic strip ''Dykes to Watch Out For'', she came to critical and commercial success in 2006 with her Graphic novel, graphic memoir ''Fun Home''. ''Fun Home'' was subsequently adapted as a Fun Home (musical), musical that won a Tony Award for Best Musical in 2015. In 2012, she released her second graphic memoir ''Are You My Mother? (memoir), Are You My Mother?'' She was a 2014 recipient of the MacArthur Fellows Program, MacArthur "Genius" Award. She is also known for originating what would later be called the Bechdel test. Early life Bechdel was born in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. She is the daughter of Helen Augusta (née Fontana) and Bruce Allen Bechdel. Her family was Roman Catholic. Her father was an army veteran who was stationed in West Germany. He was also a high school English teacher, working full-time and operating a funeral home part-time. Her mother was an actre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
