Brenda Marie Osbey (born December 12, 1957 in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

. She served as the Poet Laureate of Louisiana from 2005 to 2007.

Life

She graduated from

Dillard University Dillard University is a private, historically black university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded in 1930 and incorporating earlier institutions founded as early as 1869 after the American Civil War, it is affiliated with the United Church of C ...

, Paul Valéry University, Montpellier III, and from the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...

, with an M.A. She has taught at the University of California at Los Angeles, Loyola University New Orleans, and at

. She was Visiting Writer-in-residence at

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into a comprehensive pub ...

and Scholar-in-residence at Southern University. She teaches at

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

. Her work has appeared in ''Callaloo'', ''Obsidian'', ''Essence'', ''Southern Exposure'', ''Southern Review'', ''Epoch'', ''The American Voice'', and ''The American Poetry Review''.

Awards

* 2004 Carmargo Foundation Fellow * 1998

American Book Award The American Book Award is an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "the ...

* 1990

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

Creative Writing Fellowship * 1984 Association of Writers & Writing Programs Poetry Award * 1980 Loring-Williams Prize,

Academy of American Poets The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outreac ...

Works

* * * *

Anthologies

* * * James Gill, ed. 1987 ''2PLUS2: A Collection of International Writing'', Lausanne, Switzerland: Mylabris Press. * * *

References

External links

"Author's website"

"Louisiana's Poet Laureate: What Was Lost", ''NPR''
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Osbey, Brenda Marie Writers from New Orleans 1957 births Dillard University alumni University of Kentucky alumni University of California, Los Angeles faculty Loyola University New Orleans faculty Dillard University faculty Tulane University faculty Southern University faculty Louisiana State University faculty Living people American women poets American Book Award winners Kentucky women writers American women academics 21st-century American women