Poet and literary scholar Evie Shockley thinks, creates, and writes with her eye on a Black feminist horizon. She publishes widely and has been translated into French, Polish, Slovenian, and Spanish. Among the honors for her body of work are the Shelley Memorial Award, the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry, the Holmes National Poetry Prize, and the Stephen Henderson Award. Her joys include participating in poetry communities such as Cave Canem and collaborating with artists working in various media.
Her books of poetry include suddenly we, winner of the NAACP Image Award and aNational Book Award Finalist; semiautomatic, winner of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and a Pulitzer Prize finalist; and the new black, winner of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Shockley is the Zora Neale Hurston Distinguished Professor of English at Rutgers University.
At MacDowell in 2013, Shockley wrote the first half of her third book of poetry. In 2024, she began a new series of poems that she expects to anchor her next poetry collection. This work-in-progress follows her 2023 book, suddenly we.
