Jamaal May is an American poet from

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Life and career

May lived in Detroit, where he taught poetry in public schools as a Writer-in-Residence with InsideOut Literary Arts. He received an MFA from

Warren Wilson College Warren Wilson College (WWC) is a private liberal arts college in Swannanoa, North Carolina. It is known for its curriculum that combines academics, work, and service as every student must complete a required course of study, work an on-campus j ...

. May has taught at the

Vermont College of Fine Arts Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) is a private graduate-level college affiliated with California Institute of the Arts. It offers Master's degrees in a low-residency format. Its faculty includes Pulitzer Prize finalists, National Book Award wi ...

, and was a fellow at the ''

Kenyon Review ''The Kenyon Review'' is a literary magazine based in Gambier, Ohio, home of Kenyon College. ''The Review'' was founded in 1939 by John Crowe Ransom, critic and professor of English at Kenyon College, who served as its editor until 1959 in litera ...

'' between 2014 and 2016. May cites Vievee Francis, another poet from Detroit, as an influence and mentor. His work has appeared in the Best American Poetry 2014,'' The Believer'', ''

Poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

'', and ''

Ploughshares ''Ploughshares'' is an American literary journal established in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, ''Ploughshares'' has been based at Emerson College in Bost ...

'' . His first book, ''Hum'', received generally favorable reviews.

Bibliography

*''The God engine: poems'', Columbus, Ohio: Pudding House Publications, 2009. *''The whetting of teeth: and other poems'', Detroit, Mich.: Organic Weapon Arts, 2012. , *''Hum'',

Alice James Books Alice James Books is an American non-profit poetry press located in New Gloucester, Maine. History and mission "Alice James Books was founded as a co-operative press in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, MA in 1973 by five women and two men: ...

, 2013 *''The Big Book of Exit Strategies'' Farmington, Maine:

, 2016. , In Anthology *''Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology''. University of Georgia Press, 2018.

References

American male poets 1982 births Living people 21st-century American poets 21st-century American male writers {{US-poet-1980s-stub