Summary
Donika Kelly (born early 1980s)[1] is an American poet and academic, who is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Iowa, specializing in poetry writing and gender studies in contemporary American literature. She is the author of the chapbook Aviarium, published with fivehundred places in 2017, and the full-length collections Bestiary (Graywolf Press, 2016) and The Renunciations (Graywolf Press, May 2021).
Donika Kelly | |
|---|---|
| Born | early 1980s Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Academic and poet |
| Notable works | The Renunciations |
| Notable awards | Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, 2022 |
| Spouse | Melissa Febos |
| Website | |
| donikakelly | |
Bestiary is the winner of the 2015 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the 2017 Hurston/Wright Award for poetry, and the 2018 Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and was longlisted for the National Book Award in 2016[2] and a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award[3] and a Publishing Triangle Award in 2017.[4]
Kelly earned her MFA in Writing from the Michener Center for Writers and a Ph.D. in English from Vanderbilt University. She is a Cave Canem Graduate Fellow, the recipient of a Lannan Residency fellowship, and a fellowship to the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Her poems have appeared in The Paris Review,[5] Foglifter,[6] and The New Yorker, among other journals and magazines,[7] and she is a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.[8] Kelly lives in Iowa with her wife Melissa Febos.
Biography edit
Early years edit
Kelly was born in Los Angeles, California, in the early 1980s and moved with her family to Arkansas in the late 1990s.[1]
Education edit
In 2005, Kelly received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Southern Arkansas University. She received a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Texas in 2008. Her thesis was called The White Meat. In 2009, she obtained a Master of Arts from Vanderbilt University.[1] Her thesis, Framing the Subject in Natasha Trethewey’s Bellocq’s Ophelia, analyzed Natasha Trethewey's book on Ernest J. Bellocq's photography, specifically those of unnamed mixed-race prostitutes. Kelly finished her Ph.D in English Literature from Vanderbilt University in August 2013. Her dissertation was titled Reading against Genre: Contemporary Westerns and the Problem of White Manhood. In it, Kelly explains how the way in which society perceives the role of white men is largely influenced by the way they are portrayed in media, with a particular focus on contemporary Western films.[9]
Personal life edit
She lives in Iowa with her wife, the poet Melissa Febos.[10]
Awards and honors edit
- National Book Award, Longlist, 2016[1]
- Cave Canem Poetry Prize, Winner, 2015
- Bayard Rustin Advocacy Award, Office of LGBTQI Life, Vanderbilt, 2015
- Thomas Daniel Young Award for Excellence in Teaching, Vanderbilt, 2013
- Cave Canem Graduate Fellow, 2009, 2011, 2013
- Provost's Graduate Fellowship, Vanderbilt University, 2008–2013
- University Fellowship, Vanderbilt University, 2008–2013
- James A. Michener Fellow in Writing, 2005–2008
- Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets, June Fellow, 2004
- Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, 2022[11]
Bibliography edit
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (July 2020) |
Poetry edit
- Collections
- Bestiary. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Graywolf Press. 2016. ISBN 9781555977580.
- The renunciations. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Graywolf Press. 2021. ISBN 9781644450536.[a]
- Chapbooks
- Aviarium (500 Places, 2017)
- List of poems
| Title | Year | First published | Reprinted/collected |
|---|---|---|---|
| From the catalogue of cruelty | 2020 | Kelly, Donika (January 6, 2020). "From the catalogue of cruelty". The New Yorker. Vol. 95, no. 43. pp. 22–23. |
- "Bedtime Story For The Bruised Heart", "Cartography As An Act of Remembering", "The Three Birds Of The Milky Way" and "Labyrinth," Sinister Wisdom, 2017
- "The Oracle Remembers the Future Cannot Be Avoided", "Gun Control (Mama)", and "Primer: D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths", Tin House, 2017
- "In the Chapel of St. Mary’s" and "Self-Portrait in Labyrinth", Washington Square, 2017
- "Partial Hospitalization", Buzzfeed Reader, 2016
- "Love Poem: Chimera", Gulf Coast, 2016
- "Construction", "Revelation: Black Bear", "Revelation: White Bear", and "Pony", Rockhurst Review, 2016
- "Bower Bird", "Swallow", and "How to be alone", Virginia Quarterly Review, 2016
- "Love Poem: Centaur" and "Love Poem Mermaid", Pleiades, 2016
- "Fourth Grade Autobiography", Nashville Review, 2016
- "Handsome Is", "Little Box", and "Love Letter", Gris-Gris, 2016
- "Acheron" and "Hymn", Cincinnati Review, 2015
- "Ocelot", Eleven Eleven Journal, 2015
- "Statistics", Rove, 2015
- "A Man Goes West and Falls Off His Horse in the Desert" and "Self-Portrait as a Door", Tupelo Quarterly, 2013
- "Arkansas Love Poem", The Best of Kore Press, 2013
- "Love Poem: Griffon", West Branch, 2013
- "Last rites", RHINO, 2013
- "Tender" and "What Gay Porn Has Done for Me", Bloom, 2012
- "Love Poem: Minotaur" and "Sonnet in which only one bird appears", Vinyl, 2012
- "The Yard", "Love Song", "Whale", "Arkansas Love Song", and "Where she is opened. Where she is closed", The Feminist Wire, 2011
- "Archaeology" and "Perhaps you tire of birds", Crazyhorse, 2011
- "Whale", Hayden’s Ferry Review, 2011
- "Sanctuary", "Where We End Up" and "Brood", in Margaret Busby (ed.), New Daughters of Africa, 2019.
Theses edit
- Framing the subject in Natasha Trethewey’s Bellocq’s Ophelia (MA). Vanderbilt University. 2009.
- Reading against genre : contemporary Westerns and the problem of white manhood (PhD). Vanderbilt University. 2013.
———————
- Notes
- ^ Briefly reviewed in the May 31, 2021 issue of The New Yorker, p.63.
Sources edit
- Kelly, Donika (2013). Reading against Genre: Contemporary Westerns and the Problem of White Manhood
- Kelly, Donika (2009), Framing the Subject in Natasha Trethewey’s Bellocq’s Ophelia
- Donika Kelly website
References edit
- ^ a b c d "A Conversation Between Nikky Finney and Donika Kelly" (Nikky Finney interviews Donika Kelly), Los Angeles Review of Books, November 14, 2016.
- ^ "Donika Kelly | Longlist, 2016 National Book Awards". National Book Foundation. Retrieved June 20, 2021.
- ^ "Previous Winners". Lambda Literary. Retrieved June 20, 2021.
- ^ "The Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry". The Publishing Triangle. Retrieved June 20, 2021.
- ^ "Donika Kelly". The Paris Review (227). Winter 2018. Retrieved June 20, 2021.
- ^ Kelly, Donika (September 3, 2020). "Dear—". Foglifter. Two: 136.
- ^ "Donika Kelly | English | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences | The University of Iowa". english.uiowa.edu. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
- ^ Burke, Paul (March 28, 2019). "New Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Writing by Women of African Descent edited by Margaret Busby". NB. Archived from the original on September 22, 2020. Retrieved June 20, 2021.
- ^ "Reading | Donika Kelly", Bnnington College, November 2, 2016.
- ^ "Rebel girls". Salon. 2012-04-10. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
- ^ Jefferson, Tara (April 5, 2022). "Introducing Our Class of 2022". Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards. Retrieved April 6, 2022.
External links edit
- Official website
- "Donika Kelly", Poetry Foundation.
- "Pushcart Darlings: The Foglifter Interview with Donika Kelly", Foglifter Press, December 27, 2017.