Donika Kelly (born early 1980s)"A Conversation Between Nikky Finney and Donika Kelly"
(

Nikky Finney Nikky Finney (born Lynn Carol Finney on August 26, 1957, in Conway, South Carolina) is an American poet. She was the Guy Davenport Endowed Professor of English at the University of Kentucky for twenty years. In 2013, she accepted a position at t ...

interviews Donika Kelly), ''

Los Angeles Review of Books The ''Los Angeles Review of Books'' (''LARB'' is a literary review magazine covering the national and international book scenes. A preview version launched on Tumblr in April 2011, and the official website followed one year later in April 2012. ...

'', November 14, 2016. is an American poet and academic, who is Assistant Professor of English at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

, 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 Graywolf Press is an Independent publisher, independent, non-profit publishing, publisher located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Graywolf Press publishes fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Graywolf Press collaborates with organizations such as the Co ...

, 2016) and ''The Renunciations'' (Graywolf Press, May 2021). ''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 The Kingsley and Kate Tufts Poetry Awards are a pair of American prizes based at Claremont Graduate University. They are given to poets for their collections of poetry written in the English language, by a citizen or legal resident alien of the U ...

, and was longlisted for the

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

in 2016 and a finalist for a

Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ literature.The awards were instituted i ...

and a Publishing Triangle Award in 2017. Kelly earned her MFA in Writing from the

Michener Center for Writers The Michener Center for Writers is an interdisciplinary Masters of Fine Arts program in fiction, poetry, playwriting, and screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. It is widely regarded as one of the top creative writing programs in the wo ...

and a Ph.D. in English from

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

. She is a Cave Canem Graduate Fellow, the recipient of a Lannan Residency fellowship, and a fellowship to the

Fine Arts Work Center The Fine Arts Work Center is a non-profit enterprise devoted to encouraging the growth and development of emerging visual artists and writers through residency programs, to the propagation of aesthetic values and experience, and to the restoratio ...

Provincetown, Massachusetts Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States Census, Provincet ...

. Her poems have appeared in ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip ...

'', ''Foglifter'', and ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', among other journals and magazines, and she is a contributor to the 2019 anthology ''

New Daughters of Africa ''Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present'' is a compilation of orature and literature by more than 200 women from Africa and the African diaspora, ...

'', edited by

Margaret Busby Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's youngest and first black female book publisherJazzmine Breary"Let' ...

. Kelly lives in

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

with her wife

Melissa Febos Melissa Febos is an American writer and professor. She is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, ''Whip Smart'' (2010)'','' and the essay collections, ''Abandon Me'' (2017) and ''Girlhood'' (2021)''.'' Early life and education Febos grew u ...

Biography

Early years

Kelly was born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, California, in the early 1980s and moved with her family to

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

in the late 1990s.

Education

In 2005, Kelly received a Bachelor of Arts in English from

Southern Arkansas University Southern Arkansas University (SAU) is a public university in Magnolia, Arkansas. History Southern Arkansas University was established by an Act of the Arkansas Legislature in 1909 as a district agricultural high school for southwest Arkansas and ...

. She received a Master of Fine Arts from the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

in 2008. Her thesis was called ''The White Meat.'' In 2009, she obtained a Master of Arts from

. 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.

Awards and honors

* National Book Award, Longlist, 2016 *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 The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award is an American literary award dedicated to honoring written works that make important contributions to the understanding of racism and the appreciation of the rich diversity of human culture. Established in 1935 by Clev ...

, 2022

Bibliography

Poetry

;Collections * * Briefly reviewed in th
May 31, 2021 issue
of ''

'', p.63. ;Chapbooks * ''Aviarium'' (500 Places, 2017) ;List of poems *"Bedtime Story For The Bruised Heart", "Cartography As An Act of Remembering", "The Three Birds Of The Milky Way" and "Labyrinth," ''

Sinister Wisdom ''Sinister Wisdom'' is an American lesbian literary, theory, and art journal published quarterly in Berkeley, California. Started in 1976 by Catherine Nicholson and Harriet Ellenberger (Desmoines) in Charlotte, North Carolina, it is the longest ...

'', 2017 *"The Oracle Remembers the Future Cannot Be Avoided", "Gun Control (Mama)", and "Primer: D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths", ''

Tin House ''Tin House'' is an American book publisher based in Portland, Oregon, and New York City. Portland publisher Win McCormack originally conceived the idea for a literary magazine called ''Tin House'' in the summer of 1998. He enlisted Holly MacArt ...

'', 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

(ed.), ''

'', 2019.

Theses

* * ——————— ;Notes

Sources

* 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'' *http://donikakelly.com/

References

External links

Official website

"Donika Kelly"
Poetry Foundation.
"Pushcart Darlings: The Foglifter Interview with Donika Kelly"
Foglifter Press, December 27, 2017. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Donika 21st-century American poets 21st-century American women writers American women academics American women poets Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Southern Arkansas University alumni St. Bonaventure University faculty The New Yorker people University of Texas alumni Vanderbilt University alumni Year of birth missing (living people) American LGBT poets Poets from Los Angeles Poets from Arkansas LGBT people from California LGBT people from Arkansas