Jamaal May is an American poet from

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Life and career

May lived in Detroit, where he taught poetry in public schools as a Writer-in-Residence with

InsideOut Literary Arts InsideOut Literary Arts (InsideOut) is a 501(c)(3) literary nonprofit organization based in Detroit, Michigan, that uses creative writing and poetry programs to build students' literary and academic skills. InsideOut provides opportunities for ...

. He received an MFA from

Warren Wilson College Warren Wilson College (WWC) is a private liberal arts college in Swannanoa, North Carolina. It is known for its curriculum that combines academics, work, and service as every student must complete a requisite course of study, work an on-campu ...

. May has taught at the

Vermont College of Fine Arts Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA) is a private graduate-level art school in Montpelier, Vermont. It offers Master's degrees in low-residency and residential programs. Its faculty includes Pulitzer Prize finalists, National Book Award winners, ...

, and was a fellow at the ''

Kenyon Review ''The Kenyon Review'' is a literary magazine based in Gambier, Ohio, US, home of Kenyon College. ''The Review'' was founded in 1939 by John Crowe Ransom, critic and professor of English at Kenyon College, who served as its editor until 1959. ' ...

'' between 2014 and 2016. May cites Vievee Francis, another poet from Detroit, as an influence and mentor. His work has appeared in the Best American Poetry 2014,'' The Believer'', ''

Poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

'', and ''

Ploughshares ''Ploughshares'' is an American literary journal established in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, ''Ploughshares'' has been based at Emerson College in Bos ...

'' . His first book, ''Hum'', received generally favorable reviews.

Bibliography

*''The God engine: poems'', Columbus, Ohio: Pudding House Publications, 2009. *''The whetting of teeth: and other poems'', Detroit, Mich.: Organic Weapon Arts, 2012. , *''Hum'',

Alice James Books Alice James Books is an American non-profit poetry press located in Farmington, Maine and affiliated with the University of Maine at Farmington. History and mission "Alice James Books was founded as a co-operative press in Cambridge, MA in 19 ...

, 2013 *''The Big Book of Exit Strategies'' Farmington, Maine:

, 2016. , In Anthology *''Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology''. University of Georgia Press, 2018.

References

American male poets 1982 births Living people 21st-century American poets 21st-century American male writers {{US-poet-1980s-stub