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ESSAyISTS
ContriButors
Elizabeth Alexander is a poet, essayist, playwright, teacher, and current
chair of the African American Studies Department at Yale University.
She has served on the faculty and as a board member and is now honorary
director of Cave Canem, an organization dedicated to the development
and endurance of African American poetic voices. Her poetry collection
American Sublime was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and her sixth book
of poems is Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems, 1990–2010. Alexander
was selected to compose and read a poem at the presidential inauguration
of Barack Obama in 2009.
Sherwin Bitsui is the author of two poetry books, Shapeshift and Flood
Song. His honors include a Whiting Writers Award, a 2010 PEN Open
Book Award, and an American Book Award. Bitsui is originally from
Baa’oogeedí (White Cone, Arizona) on the Navajo Nation. Currently, he
lives in Tucson. He is Diné of the Todich’íi’nii (Bitter Water Clan), born
for the Tł’ízíłání (Many Goats Clan).
Lee Briccetti is a poet and the executive director of Poets House, a
national poetry library and literary center for poets and the public, which
documents the wealth and diversity of modern poetry and stimulates pub-
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