Shayla Lawson is an American poet and writer, currently the writer in residence at
Amherst College
Amherst College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zepha ...
.
Biography
Lawson grew up in Kentucky and entered the slam poetry scene there before majoring in Architecture at the
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical ...
, where they gave the 2005 Breathitt Lecture, "My Ancestor Antenna: Hair and Its Relation to African-American Identity Across the Diaspora." After graduating, Lawson worked as an architect for some time before pursuing their MFA at
Indiana University Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, IUB, or Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana Univer ...
, where they worked as the nonfiction editor of the ''
Indiana Review
''Indiana Review'' (''IR'') is a small, student-run literary magazine at Indiana University Bloomington. Founded in 1976, it has a circulation of about 2,000.
A biannual review, ''IR'' publishes essays, fiction, graphic arts, interviews, poetr ...
'' and for the Graduate Mentoring Center. Lawson published their debut collection, ''A Speed Education in Human Being,'' in 2013, the chapbook ''Pantone'', of which each poem was printed on its own card, in 2016, and the book ''I Think I'm Ready to See Frank Ocean'' in 2018. They received the 2017 Oregon Literary Fellowship and Honorable Mention in the 2017 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. Lawson succeeded Daniel Hall as the poet in residence at Amherst College beginning in the 2018-19 academic year.
In 2021, Shayla Lawson appeared on
Storybound (podcast)
''Storybound'' is a podcast created, produced, and hosted by Jude Brewer, with original music composed for each episode. The show is a collaboration between ''Lit Hub'' and The Podglomerate podcast network, featuring household names and Pulitze ...
reading two excerpts from their book ''This Is Major'', with music by MAITA.