Shara McCallum is an American poet. She was awarded a 2011

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federa ...

Fellowship for Poetry.National Endowment of the Arts 2011 Poetry Fellows
. Nea.gov. Retrieved 20 October 2011. McCallum is the author of four collections of poems, including '' Madwoman'', which won the 2018 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature in the poetry category. She currently lives in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

Life and work

McCallum was born in

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the five most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispan ...

, to an African Jamaican father, Alastair McCallum, and a Venezuelan mother, Migdalia Bertorelli McCallum. McCallum graduated from the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, ...

, from the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the Flagship un ...

with an M.F.A., and from

Binghamton University The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public research university with campuses in Binghamton, Vestal, and Johnson City, New York. It is one of the four university centers in the State ...

in New York with a PhD. She has taught at the Stonecoast MFA program. McCallum directs the Stadler Center for Poetry and taught creative writing and literature at

Bucknell University Bucknell University is a private liberal arts college in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1846 as the University at Lewisburg, it now consists of the College of Arts and Sciences, Freeman College of Management, and the College of Engineerin ...

. McCallum is now a professor of English at

Penn State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a public state-related land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvania. Founded in 1855 as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, Penn State becam ...

. She lives in Pennsylvania with her family. McCallum's work has appeared in ''

The Antioch Review ''The Antioch Review'' is an American literary magazine established in 1941 at Antioch College in Ohio. The magazine was published on a quarterly basis. One of the oldest continuously published literary magazines in the United States prior to it ...

'', '' Callaloo'', ''Chelsea'', ''

The Iowa Review ''The Iowa Review'' is an American literary magazine that publishes fiction, poetry, essays, and reviews. History and profile Founded in 1970, ''Iowa Review'' is issued three times a year, during the months of April, August, and December. Origin ...

'', ''Verse'', ''Creative Nonfiction'', ''

Seneca Review Hobart and William Smith Colleges are private liberal arts colleges in Geneva, New York. They trace their origins to Geneva Academy established in 1797. Students can choose from 45 majors and 68 minors with degrees in Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor ...

'', and ''Witness''. Her poems can be found in a number of journals worldwide in places like the United States, the UK, Israel and Latin America.

Religion

When she was a child, McCallum was raised practicing Rastafarian, however when she migrated to the United States she stopped considering herself a member of any religion. Later in life, she converted to Judaism. McCallum was particularly fond of the idea that Judaism held about being part of a larger community than yourself alone. She found inspiration for her poems in the songs and practices, such as myths and rituals, of her religion. McCallum believes that her form of prayer and mediation is poetry.

Honors and awards

* 1998 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize * Barbara Deming Memorial Fund grant * Tennessee Individual Artist Grant in Literature * 2011

Fellowship for Poetry *Poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. *Bynner award from the Library of Congress. *2018 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for poetry (for '' Madwoman'').

Publications

Full-length poetry collections * * *''This Strange Land'' ( Alice James Books, forthcoming) * ''Madwoman'' ( Alice James Books 2017) Nonfiction * Anthology publications * * * *

References

External links

*Magdelyn Hammond
"An Interview with Shara McCallum"
''Smartish Pace''
"Shara McCallum, Director of the Stadler Center for Poetry"
''YouTube''

''ars poetica''

''Poetry Foundation'' *

'' Cave Canem'' {{DEFAULTSORT:McCallum, Shara Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American women Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize winners American women academics American women poets Binghamton University alumni Bucknell University faculty Jamaican emigrants to the United States Writers from Kingston, Jamaica University of Maryland, College Park alumni University of Miami alumni University of Southern Maine faculty Writers in Jamaican Patois