Cave Canem Foundation is an American 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1996 by poets

Toi Derricotte Toi Derricotte (pronounced ''DARE-ah-cot'' ) (born April 12, 1941) is an American poet. She is the author of six poetry collections and a literary memoir. She has won numerous literary awards, including the 2020 Frost Medal for distinguished lifet ...

and

Cornelius Eady Cornelius Eady (born 1954) is an American writer focusing largely on matters of race and society. His poetry often centers on jazz and blues, family life, violence, and societal problems stemming from questions of race and class. His poetry is ...

to remedy the underrepresentation and isolation of

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

poets in

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts a ...

(MFA) programs and

writing workshop A writing circle is a group of like-minded writers needing support for their work, either through writing peer critiques, workshops or classes, or just encouragement. There are many different types of writing circles or writing groups based on l ...

s across the United States. It is based in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

, New York. Cave Canem programs include an annual summer retreat, regional workshops, first- and second-book poetry prizes, anthology publication and national readings and panels. The organization has also published two anthologies, ''Gathering Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem’s First Decade'', edited by Derricotte and Eady (

University of Michigan Press The University of Michigan Press is part of Michigan Publishing at the University of Michigan Library. It publishes 170 new titles each year in the humanities and social sciences. Titles from the press have earned numerous awards, including ...

, 2006), and ''The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South'', edited by

Nikky Finney Nikky Finney (born Lynn Carol Finney on August 26, 1957, in Conway, South Carolina) is an American poet. She was the Guy Davenport Endowed Professor of English at the University of Kentucky for twenty years. In 2013, she accepted a position at ...

(

University of Georgia Press The University of Georgia Press or UGA Press is the university press of the University of Georgia, a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia. It is the oldest and largest publishing house in Georgia and ...

, 2007). In September 2016,

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 ...

awarded Cave Canem the Literarian Award for service to the American literary community.

History

Founded in 1996 by poets Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady, Cave Canem Foundation began as a week-long writing retreat for selected African-American poets at Mount St. Alphonsus Conference Center in

Esopus, New York Esopus ( ) is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 9,041 at the 2010 census. The town was named after the local indigenous tribe and means "small river" in English. They were one of the Lenape (Delaware) bands, b ...

. According to Derricotte, the idea grew out of previous attempts she had made to create programs supporting Black poets at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...

in the early 1980s and

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

in the early 1990s; she shared her vision with Eady and Sarah Micklem, which led to the St. Alphonsus retreat. Since then, Cave Canem "has grown from an initial gathering of 26 poets to become an influential movement with a renowned faculty and a high-achieving national fellowship" of over 300. The Foundation's name, Cave Canem, is Latin for "

Beware of the Dog Beware of the dog (also rendered as Beware of dog) is a warning sign indicating that a dangerous dog is within. Such signs may be placed to deter burglary even if there is no dog. History Warning signs of this sort have been found in ancien ...

" and refers to a sign that Derricotte spotted while visiting the

House of the Tragic Poet The House of the Tragic Poet (also called ''The Homeric House'' or ''The Iliadic House'') is a Roman house in Pompeii, Italy dating to the 2nd century BCE. The house is famous for its elaborate mosaic floors and frescoes depicting scenes from ...

in the volcanic ash covered city of Pompeii. Derricotte retired as co-director in 2015.

Programs

Writing for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' in 2015, Stephen Burt described Cave Canem as "a major incubator for the current renaissance in black poetry, which includes the poets

Tracy K. Smith Tracy K. Smith (born April 16, 1972) is an American poet and educator. She served as the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States from 2017 to 2019. She has published four collections of poetry, winning the Pulitzer Prize for her 2011 volume '' Li ...

, who won the 2012

Pulitzer Prize in poetry The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually for Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first presented in 1922, and is given for a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author, published ...

; Afaa Michael Weaver, who won the Kingsley Tufts prize last year; and, most recently,

Claudia Rankine Claudia Rankine (; born September 4, 1963) is an American poet, essayist, playwright and the editor of several anthologies. She is the author of five volumes of poetry, two plays and various essays. Her book of poetry, '' Citizen: An American L ...

, who won the

Retreat

Currently held annually at the

University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg (Pitt-Greensburg or UPG) is a state-related liberal arts college in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. It is a baccalaureate degree-granting regional campus of the University of Pittsburgh. Opened in 1963, Pitt- ...

, Pennsylvania, Cave Canem’s tuition-free retreat is a week of faculty-led writing workshops and poetry readings for African-American poets. Accepted applicants (fellows) may participate for a maximum of three summers within a five-year period. Past faculty have included Presidential Inaugural poet Elizabeth Alexander; Pulitzer Prize winner

Yusef Komunyakaa Yusef Komunyakaa (born James William Brown; April 29, 1941) is an American poet who teaches at New York University and is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Komunyakaa is a recipient of the 1994 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, for ''Ne ...

;

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 N ...

finalists Patricia Smith and

Carl Phillips Carl Phillips (born 1959) is an American writer and poet. He is a Professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis. Early life Phillips was born in Everett, Washington. He was born a child of a military family, moving year-by-year unt ...

and 2011 National Book Award winner

Book prizes

Cave Canem Foundation sponsors two annual book prizes. One is the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, awarded for an exceptional first book by an African-American poet and published by the

University of Pittsburgh Press The University of Pittsburgh Press is a scholarly publishing house and a major American university press, part of the University of Pittsburgh. The university and the press are located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The press ...

;

Natasha Trethewey Natasha Trethewey (born April 26, 1966) is an American poet who was appointed United States Poet Laureate in 2012 and again in 2013. She won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for her 2006 collection ''Native Guard'', and she is a former Poet Lau ...

won the inaugural prize in 1999 for her collection ''Domestic Work''. Other winners have included Van Clief-Stefanon (2001) and Donika Kelly (2011) for her book, ''Bestiary''. The second is the Cave Canem

Northwestern University Press Northwestern University Press is an American publishing house affiliated with Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. It publishes 70 new titles each year in the areas of continental philosophy, poetry, Slavic and German literary criticism ...

Poetry Prize, a second-book award established in 2009 that "celebrates and publishes works of lasting cultural value and literary excellence" by African-American poets. It is awarded every other year.

Legacy conversations

Established in 2001, these moderated discussions feature poets and scholars who "have played historic roles in African-American poetry." Participants have included

Nobel Laureate The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make ...

Derek Walcott Sir Derek Alton Walcott (23 January 1930 – 17 March 2017) was a Saint Lucian poet and playwright. He received the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature. His works include the Homeric epic poem '' Omeros'' (1990), which many critics view "as Walcott ...

, Pulitzer Prize winner

Rita Dove Rita Frances Dove (born August 28, 1952) is an American poet and essayist. From 1993 to 1995, she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She is the first African American to have been appointed since the positi ...

, and poet and activist

Amiri Baraka Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays and music criticism. He was the author of numerous bo ...

Poets on Craft series

Launched in 2008, Poets on Craft features “award-winning poets in the early-to-middle stages of their careers. Poets meet in moderated conversation, discussing aesthetics, the role of the contemporary poet and other topical issues.” Participants have included

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Major Jackson Major Jackson (born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American poet and professor at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of five collections of poetry: The Absurd Man ( W.W. Norton, 2020), Roll Deep ( W.W. Norton, 2015), Holding Compa ...

and Walt Whitman Award winner

Suji Kwock Kim Suji Kwock Kim (also S. K. Kim) is a Korean-American-British poet-playwright. Life She was educated at Yale College, the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, Seoul National University and Yonsei University, where she was a Fulbright Scholar, ...

Regional workshops

Established in 1999, workshops for emerging poets of color are held semi-annually in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

and, more recently, in

Columbia, South Carolina Columbia is the capital of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 census, it is the second-largest city in South Carolina. The city serves as the county seat of Richland County, and a portion of the ci ...

, in partnership with the South Carolina Poetry Initiative. Instructors have included former Poet Laureate of Connecticut,

Marilyn Nelson Marilyn Nelson (born April 26, 1946) is an American poet, translator, and children's book author. She is a professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut, and the former poet laureate of Connecticut, She is a winner of the Ruth Lilly Poetry ...

Whiting Writers' Award The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions ...

winner

Tyehimba Jess Tyehimba Jess (born 1965 in Detroit) is an American poet. His book '' Olio'' received the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Biography Early life Tyehimba Jess was born Jesse S. Goodwin. He grew up in Detroit, where his father worked in that city' ...

, and

American Book Award The American Book Award is an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "the ...

winner,

Kimiko Hahn Kimiko Hahn (born July 5, 1955) is an American poet and distinguished professor in the MFA program of Queens College, CUNY. Her works frequently deal with the reinvention of poetic forms and the intersecting of conflicting identities. Biography ...

Awards

In 2016, Cave Canem became the first organization (rather than individual) to win the National Book Foundation's Literarian Award for service to the American literary community. The National Book Foundation's executive director Lisa Lucas said: "Cave Canem’s innovative and effective literary activism has been transformative to the world of letters. Their ongoing commitment to provide supportive channels for African American poets to thrive has yielded works that enrich the world’s literary culture."

Published works

*2006: ''Gathering Ground: a Reader Celebrating Cave Canem's First Decade'' OCL
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*2007: ''The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South'' OCL
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Former fellows (partial list)

* Opal Palmer Adisa * Samiya Bashir * Reginald Dwayne Betts * Tara Betts *

Roger Bonair-Agard Roger Bonair-Agard is a poet and performance artist. He has made numerous television and radio appearances, has led countless workshops and lectures, and has performed his poetry at many US universities as well as at international festivals in Ger ...

* Jericho Brown * Gloria Burgess * Aya de Leon *

Camille Dungy Camille T. Dungy (born 1972) is an American poet and professor. Career Born in Denver, Colorado, Dungy graduated from Stanford University (BA) and the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, where she earned her MFA. She is the author of four ...

* Ross Gay *

Alysia Nicole Harris Alysia Nicole Harris is an American poet based out of Atlanta. She is a Cave Canem Foundation, Cave Canem fellow, was twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and won the Stephen Dunn Poetry Prize in 2014 and 2015. She has performed spoken word poet ...

Yona Harvey Yona Harvey (born 1974) is an American poet and assistant professor at University of Pittsburgh. She won the 2014 Kate Tufts Discovery Award. She is also an author of Marvel Comics' ''World of Wakanda'', becoming one of the first two black women ...

Terrance Hayes Terrance Hayes (born November 18, 1971) is an American poet and educator who has published seven poetry collections. His 2010 collection, ''Lighthead'', won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2010. In September 2014, he was one of 21 recipients ...

M. Ayodele Heath M. Ayodele Heath is an American poet, spoken-word performer, and fiction writer. Life Born in Atlanta, M. Ayodele Heath studied electrical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and holds an MFA in Poetry from New England Coll ...

Major Jackson Major Jackson (born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American poet and professor at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of five collections of poetry: The Absurd Man ( W.W. Norton, 2020), Roll Deep ( W.W. Norton, 2015), Holding Compa ...

Amanda Johnston Amanda Johnston (born 1977) is an African-American poet. She was born in East St. Louis, Illinois, and currently resides in Round Rock/Austin, Texas. Amanda Johnston received a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from the University ...

* A. Van Jordan * Bettina Judd *

Douglas Kearney Douglas Kearney (born 1974) is an American poet, performer and librettist. Kearney grew up in Altadena, California. His work has appeared in ''Nocturnes'', ''Jubilat'', ''Beloit Poetry Journal'', ''Gulf Coast'', ''Poetry'', ''Pleiades'', ''Iow ...

* Donika Kelly * Nate Marshall * Adrian Matejka *

Shara McCallum Shara McCallum is an American poet. She was awarded a 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Poetry.Constance Merritt Constance Merritt is an American poet. Born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, in 1966, and educated at the Arkansas School for the Blind in Little Rock. She is also the winner of the Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry and a finalist for the William Carlos Will ...

Lenard Moore Lenard Duane Moore (born February 13, 1958) in Jacksonville, North Carolina. He is a writer of more than 20 forms of poetry, drama, essays, and literary criticism, and has been writing and publishing haiku for more than 20 years. In 2008, Moor ...

* Tracie Morris *

Harryette Mullen Harryette Mullen (born July 1, 1953), Professor of English at University of California, Los Angeles, is an American poet, short story writer, and literary scholar. Life Mullen was born in Florence, Alabama, grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, gradua ...

* John Murillo * Angel Nafis *

Mendi Obadike Mendi Obadike ( in 1973) and Keith A. L. Townsend Obadike (born 1973) are an Igbo Nigerian American couple who create music, writing, and art. Their music, live art and conceptual Internet artworks have been exhibited internationally. She is an as ...

Gregory Pardlo Gregory Pardlo (born November 24, 1968) is an American poet, writer, and professor. His book ''Digest'' won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. His poems, reviews, and translations have appeared in ''The American Poetry Review'', ''Callaloo'', ''P ...

* Morgan Parker *

Danez Smith Danez Smith is an African-American, poet, writer and performer from St. Paul, Minnesota. They are queer, non-binary and HIV-positive. They are the author of the poetry collections '' nsertBoy'' and ''Don't Call Us Dead: Poems'', both of which ha ...

* Patricia Smith *

Rose M. Smith A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be e ...

* Frank X Walker *

Phillip B. Williams Phillip B. Williams (born 1986) is an American poet. Born in Chicago, he is the author of the chapbooks ''Bruised Gospels'' and ''Burn'' as well as the full length poetry collections ''Thief in the Interior'' and ''MUTINY''. Career He graduat ...

* Yolanda Wisher * Bianca Spriggs * Lyrae van Clief-Stefanon * Arisa White

References

{{Reflist

External links

Cave Canem
official website * Cave Canem Records. James Weldon Johnson Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. 1996 establishments in New York (state) African-American arts organizations African-American literature American poetry American writers' organizations Arts foundations based in the United States Arts organizations based in New York City Arts organizations established in 1996 Poetry organizations