Shockley has published four books of poetry: the new black (Wesleyan University Press, 2011), winner of the 2012 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in Poetry; 31 words * prose poems (Belladonna Books, 2007); a half-red sea (Carolina Wren Press, 2006), and The Gorgon Goddess (Carolina Wren Press, 2001). She is the author of the critical book Renegade Poetics: Black Aesthetics and Formal Innovation in African American Poetry (University of Iowa Press, 2011). A Cave Canem graduate fellow, Shockley received the 2012 Holmes National Poetry Prize. She teaches African American Literature and Creative Writing at Rutgers University-New Brunswick in New Jersey.

Funding provided by the Jackson Poetry Endowment.

Q&A with the Author, Friday, April 8, 11 am, Hollins Room, Wyndham Robertson Library