Nathaniel Mackey is an

American poet The poets listed below were either born in the United States or else published much of their poetry while living in that country. A B C D E F G H I–J K L M N O P Q *George Quasha (born 1942 in poetry, 1942) R ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

anthologist In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically catego ...

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

and

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

. He is the Reynolds Price Professor of Creative Writing at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

and a Chancellor of

The Academy of American Poets ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

. Mackey is currently teaching a poetry workshop at

. He has been editor and publisher of '' Hambone'' since 1982 and he won the

National Book Award for Poetry The National Book Award for Poetry is one of five annual National Book Awards, which are given by the National Book Foundation to recognize outstanding literary work by US citizens. They are awards "by writers to writers".

in 2006. In 2014, he was awarded the

Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize The Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize is awarded annually by The Poetry Foundation, which also publishes ''Poetry'' magazine. The prize was established in 1986 by Ruth Lilly. It honors a living U.S. poet whose "lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordina ...

, and in 2015 he won Yale's Bollingen Prize for American Poetry.

Biography

Nathaniel Mackey was born in 1947 in Miami, Florida and moved to California at age three when his parents split. As a teen, he started listening to jazz at his brother's suggestion, which later influenced his work. He visited

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

as a high school student along with Gene Washington where he was able to see live jazz in Manhattan. The trip was instrumental in the decision to attend the university. After he graduated with a BA, he returned to Southern California to teach algebra at a junior high school. In 1970, Mackey enrolled in

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

for his doctorate. His dissertation was about the

Black Mountain poets The Black Mountain poets, sometimes called projectivist poets, were a group of mid-20th-century American ''avant-garde'' or postmodern poets centered on Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Background Although it lasted only twenty-three ...

and the poetry they created with the human rhythms of breath and utterance. After graduation, he taught at University of Wisconsin and the University of Southern California before moving on to the literature department at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

, Santa Cruz in 1979. He held that position until 2010 when he moved with his family to North Carolina to take a position at

Poetry

Mackey's books of poetry include the chapbooks ''Four for Trane'' (1978) and ''Septet for the End of Time'' (1983); and the books ''Eroding Witness'' (1985), ''School of Udhra'' (1993), ''Whatsaid Serif'' (1998), ''Splay Anthem'' (2006), ''Nod House'' (2011), and ''Blue Fasa'' (2016), as well as the books ''Tej Bet'', ''So's Notice'', and ''Nerve Church'', which were published together as a boxed set called ''Double Trio'' in 2021. In 2016, Black Ocean Books published a collection called ''Lay Ghost'' that featured songs that later appeared in ''So's Notice''. Mackey's poetry combines African mythology,

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

musical traditions, and

Modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

poetic experiment. His several ongoing serial projects explore the relationship of poetry and historical memory, as well as the ritual power of poetry and song.

Fiction

Mackey has published five volumes of an ongoing prose project entitled ''From A Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate''. The books are titled ''Bedouin Hornbook'' (1986), ''Djbot Baghostus's Run'' (1993), ''Atet A. D.'' (2001), ''Bass Cathedral'' (2008), and ''Late Arcade'' (2017). ''Bedouin Hornbook'' was inspired by the experience of seeing a jazz ensemble in which he was the only person in the audience. His series of letters explores playing in a band like that. The book is also the first in the “Broken Bottle” series.

Criticism and editing

In 1974, Mackey became an editor of the poetry journal '' Hambone'', later becoming the sole editor and publisher in 1982. Mackey is the author of ''Discrepant Engagement: Dissonance, Cross-Culturality, and Experimental Writing'' (1993), an influential book of

literary theory Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, mo ...

, and more recently of ''Paracritical Hinge: Essays, Talks, Notes, Interviews'' (2004). He co-edited ''Moment's Notice: Jazz in Poetry and Prose'' with Art Lange (1993).

Personal life

At Stanford, Mackey met Gloria Jean Watkins (bell hooks), whom he dated until the mid 1980s. He married Pascale Gaitet, a specialist in French literature, in 1991. The couple later had three children: Naima, Gabriella, and Ian. In 1999, he was diagnosed with

sarcoidosis Sarcoidosis (also known as ''Besnier-Boeck-Schaumann disease'') is a disease involving abnormal collections of inflammatory cells that form lumps known as granulomata. The disease usually begins in the lungs, skin, or lymph nodes. Less commonly af ...

after a cut on his forehead didn't heal.

Awards

* 1993 Whiting Award * 2006

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 ...

, Poetry, for ''Splay Anthem''"National Book Awards – 2006"

National Book Foundation The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established, "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America". Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc.,Edwin McDowell. "Book Notes: 'The Joy Luc ...

. Retrieved 2012-04-08.
(With acceptance speech by Mackey, essay by Megan Snyder-Camp from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog, and other materials.) * 2007

Foundation for Contemporary Arts The Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA), is a nonprofit based foundation in New York City that offers financial support and recognition to contemporary performing and visual artists through awards for artistic innovation and potential. It was ...

Grants to Artists Award * 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship * 2014

* 2015

Bollingen Prize The Bollingen Prize for Poetry is a literary honor bestowed on an American poet in recognition of the best book of new verse within the last two years, or for lifetime achievement.

for American Poetry "Nathaniel Mackey wins Yale’s 2015 Bollingen Prize for Poetry"
''Yale News''. Retrieved 10 February 2015. * 2016

Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry The Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry is awarded biennially by the Library of Congress on behalf of the nation in recognition for the most distinguished book of poetry written by an American and published during the preceding two y ...

for Lifetime Achievement

Resources

External links

The Ocean’s Tide: Parentheses in Kamau Brathwaite’s and Nathaniel Mackey’s Decolonial Poetics
at Cordite Poetry Review
Mackey's page at The Academy of American Poets

Mackey's EPC author page

Profile at The Whiting Foundation

Mackey was a Guest of the ILB ( ''Internationales Literatufestival Berlin'' / Germany ) in 2005
"Add-Verse" a poetry-photo-video project Mackey participated inStuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
Emory University
Nathaniel Mackey papers, 1947-2011
: {{DEFAULTSORT:Mackey, Nathaniel 1947 births Living people African-American novelists National Book Award winners American male novelists American male poets American literary critics People from Miami African-American poets 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people