The Department of English’s Baltimore Poetry and Politics Course presents:

Doaks will read a selection from her new chapbook, American Herstory, and discuss how poetry and her work for social justice are intertwined.

Poet and journalist celeste doaks is the author of several books of poetry including Not Without Our Laughter: Poems of Humor, Joy, and Sexuality; Cornrows and Cornfields; and American Herstory, which was the winner of Backbone Press’s 2018 chapbook competition and named the best chapbook by Maryland Poet Laureate, Grace Cavalieri. Her multiple accolades include a 2017 Rubys Grant in Literary Arts, a Lucille Clifton Scholarship to attend Squaw Valley Writers Workshop, the 2010 AWP WC&C Scholarship, and residencies at Atlantic Center of the Arts and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Her journalism has appeared in the Huffington Post, Village Voice, Time Out New York, and Quarterly Black Book Review (QBR).

Doaks received her MFA from North Carolina State University and has held teaching positions at East Carolina University, Morgan State University, and Stevenson University. She was also the 2017-2020 Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Delaware.

This event is supported by the Dresher Center for the Humanities’ Inclusion Imperative Program, made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.