Contemporary Poetry Initiative

Rebecca Gayle Howell is a graduate of the University of Kentucky (B.A., M.A.), Drew University (M.F.A.), and Texas Tech University (Ph.D.). She currently serves as an assistant professor in the Program in Creative Writing and Translation at the University of Arkansas.

Major Jackson earned a B.S. from Temple University and an M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Oregon. He currently is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities at Vanderbilt University.

Ruben Quesada holds an M.F.A. in creative writing and writing for the performing arts from the University of California, Riverside, and a Ph.D. in English from Texas Tech University. Currently, he teaches literature and creative writing at Columbia College Chicago.

Tracy K. Smith earned degrees from Harvard University (B.A.) and Columbia University (M.F.A.). She currently serves as a professor of English and African and African American Studies at Harvard University and as the Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor at Harvard Radcliffe Institute.

Sumita Chakraborty earned a B.A. from Wellesley College and a doctorate in English with a certificate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Emory University. She currently serves as an assistant professor of English and creative writing at North Carolina State University.

Born in Akron, Ohio, A. Van Jordan is a graduate of Wittenberg University (B.A.), Howard University (M.A.), Warren Wilson College (M.F.A.), and Vermont College of Fine Arts (M.F.A.). He serves as a professor of English at Stanford University. He previously was the Robert Hayden Collegiate Professor of English Language & Literature at the University of Michigan. 

Shane McCrae grew up in Texas and California. He earned a B.A. from Linfield College, an M.A. from the University of Iowa, an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He serves as an associate professor in Columbia University’s MFA Writing Program and lives in New York City.