Kwame Dawes

Kwame Senu Neville Dawes (born 28 July 1962) is a Ghanaian poet, academic, critic, actor, and musician. He is the former Louis Frye Scudder Professor of Liberal Arts at the University of South Carolina and former Professor of English at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He was appointed Professor of Literary Arts at Brown University in 2024. He is series editor of the African Poetry Book Series and director of the African Poetry Book Fund. He was editor-in-chief at Prairie Schooner magazine from 2011 until 2025.

He has published thirty books of poetry, as well as works of fiction, essays, and criticism. His awards include the Forward Poetry Prize, the Commonwealth Writers Prize, a 2009 Emmy Award, the Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award, Brittle Papers literary person of the year award, the Windham-Campbell Prize in 2019, and the National Books Critics Circle Award for Poetry in 2025. He is a Chancellor Emeritus of the Academy of American Poets and was elected an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2018. In April 2024, Dawes was announced as the new Poet Laureate of Jamaica.

Biography

Early years and education Kwame Dawes was born in Ghana in 1962 to Sophia and Neville Dawes, and in 1971 the family moved to Kingston, Jamaica, when Neville Dawes became deputy director of the Institute of Jamaica.Seeger, Roy, "Dawes, Kwame (b. 1962)", in Tom Mack (ed.), The South Carolina Encyclopedia Guide to South Carolina Writers, University of South Carolina Press, 2014. Growing up in Jamaica, Kwame Dawes attended Jamaica College and the University of the West Indies at Mona, where he received a BA degree in 1983. He studied and taught in New Brunswick, Canada, on a Commonwealth Scholarship.Kwame Dawes page , Peepal Tree Press. In 1992, he earned a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of New Brunswick, where he was editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, The Brunswickan.

Career From 1992 to 2012, Dawes taught at the University of South Carolina (USC) as a Professor in English, Distinguished Poet in Residence, Director of the South Carolina Poetry Initiative, and Director of the USC Arts Institute. He was also the faculty advisor for the publication Yemassee.Kwame Dawes page, University of South Carolina.

He won the 1994 Forward Poetry Prize, Best First Collection for Progeny of Air.

He was a Chancellor's Professor of English at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln,"Endowed Professors and Chairs", College of Arts and Sciences, University of Nebraska–Lincoln. a faculty member of Cave Canem Foundation, and a teacher in the Pacific MFA program in Oregon.

Dawes collaborated with San Francisco-based writer and composer Kevin Simmonds on Wisteria: Twilight Songs from the Swamp Country, which debuted at London's Royal Festival Hall in 2006, and featured sopranos Valetta Brinson and Valerie Johnson.

In 2009, Dawes won an Emmy Award in the category of New Approaches to News & Documentary Programming: Arts, Lifestyle & Culture. His project documented HIV/AIDS in Jamaica, interspersed with poetry, photography by Andre Lambertson, and music by Kevin Simmonds. The website Livehopelove.com"HOPE: Living & Loving with HIV in Jamaica". Pulitzer Center. is the culmination of his project."Professor Kwame Dawes wins Emmy for HIV project", Jamaica Observer, 23 September 2009. Dawes is director of the Calabash International Literary Festival, a yearly event in Jamaica.Kwame Dawes biography, Poetry Foundation.

In 2011, Dawes became editor of literary journal Prairie Schooner, a post he held until 2025.

New York-based Poets & Writers named Dawes as a recipient of the 2011 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award, which recognises writers who have given generously to other writers or to the broader literary community.

In 2012, the African Poetry Book Fund was established, with Dawes as the founding editor. He and five other internationally regarded poets serve on the reading board to annually publish the winning manuscript of the Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets, a new and selected/collected volume by a major living African poet, the New-Generation African Poets Chapbook Boxset (comprising collected chapbooks of emerging writers, with special emphasis on those who have not yet published a full-length collection), and contemporary works of new poetry by select African poets (solicited and unsolicited manuscripts). The Fund also administers the Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry, the only pan-African prize for a collection of poetry.

In 2016, the event Respect Due: Symposium on the Work of Kwame Dawes featured participants including Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Shara McCallum, Vladimir Lucien, Ishion Hutchinson, Linton Kwesi Johnson, John Robert Lee, and Lorna Goodison. Goodison in her contribution described him by saying: "...he is the embodiment of the African Jamaican, born as he was of Ghanaian and Jamaican parents, and he moves with ease and authority between multiple worlds. Everything about Kwame’s art is multi-dimensional."

In 2018, Dawes was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets."Kwame Dawes", Poets.org. In the same year, he was made an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature for significant contribution to the advancement of literature.

In 2019, he was one of the eight recipients of the Windham–Campbell Prize, alongside Ishion Hutchinson (Jamaica), Danielle McLaughlin (Ireland), David Chariandy (Canada), Raghu Karnad (India), Rebecca Solnit (US), Young Jean Lee (US) and Patricia Cornelius (Australia).Obi-Young, Otosirieze (14 March 2019), "Professor Kwame Dawes Awarded $165,000 Windham-Campbell Prize, Alongside Seven Others", Brittle Paper.

In 2021, Dawes succeeded Ted Kooser as host of the news column American Life in Poetry.

In 2022, he was named "literary Person of the Year" by African literary blog Brittle Paper, an honour that "recognizes an individual who has done outstanding work in advancing the African literary industry and culture in the given year".

In April 2024, Dawes was named as poet laureate of Jamaica, with a three-year tenure.

Also in 2024, Dawes joined the faculty of Brown University, becoming Professor of Literary Arts.

Awards and honours 1994: Forward Poetry Prize (Best First Collection) 1996: Individual Artist Fellowship 2000: Poetry Business Prize 2000: Hollis Summers Poetry Prize 2001: Pushcart Prize for Poetry (US) 2003: Commonwealth Writers Prize (Caribbean and Canada Region, Best First Book) 2009: Emmy Award – New Approaches to News & Documentary Programming: Arts, Lifestyle & Culture 2018: Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature 2019: Windham–Campbell Literature Prize in Poetry. 2022: Order of Distinction (Commander Class); Brittle Papers Literary Person of the Year 2024–2027: Poet laureate of Jamaica 2025: National Books Critics Circle Award for Poetry for his poetry book, "Sturge Town"

Works

Poetry Progeny of Air, Peepal Tree Press, 1994, Resisting the Anomie, Fredericton, 1995, "Resisting the Anomie" at Amazon. Prophets, Peepal Tree Press, 1995, Jacko Jacobus, Peepal Tree Press, 1996, Requiem, Peepal Tree Press, 1996, Shook Foil, Peepal Tree Press, 1997, Map-Maker Smith/Doorstop Books, 2000,

New and Selected Poems, 1994–2002, Peepal Tree Press, 2003, Bruised Totems, Parallel Press Madison, 2004, "Bruised Totems" at University of Wisconsin Digital Collections. I Saw Your Face, with Tom Feelings, Dial Books, 2005, "I Saw Your Face" at Amazon. Wisteria: Twilight Songs from the Swamp Country, Red Hen Press, 2006, "Wisteria" at Amazon. Impossible Flying, Peepal Tree Press, 2007, "Impossible Flying", Amazon.

Hope's Hospice, Peepal Tree Press, 2009, "Hope's Hospice and Other Poems (Peepal Tree Caribbean Poetry)", Amazon. Back of Mount Peace, Peepal Tree Press, 2009, Wheels, Peepal Tree Press, 2010, Duppy Conqueror: New and Selected Poems, Copper Canyon Press, 2013, Speak from Here to There, with John Kinsella, Peepal Tree Press, 2016, "Speak from Here to There", Amazon. City of Bones: A Testament, Northwestern University Press, 2017, "City of Bones: A Testament (Triquarterly Books)", Amazon.

Novels

Bivouac, Peepal Tree Press Ltd, 2010,

Short stories A Place to Hide and Other Stories, Peepal Tree Press, 2003,

Non fiction Natural Mysticism: Towards a Reggae Aesthetic, Peepal Tree Press, 1999, "Natural Mysticism: Towards a New Reggae Aesthetic" at Amazon. Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius, Sanctuary, 2002, A Far Cry from Plymouth Rock: A Personal Narrative, Peepal Tree Press, 2007,

Plays

Editor

(with Colin Channer)

(with Jeremy Poynting)

(with Marianne Kunkel and James Englehardt) (with Marjory Wentworth) (with Chris Abani) (With Chris Abani)

(with Matthew Shenoda) (with Chris Abani) (with Chris Abani)

South Carolina Poetry Book Prize Dawes established the South Carolina Poetry Initiative's annual book prize competition, and edited the winning manuscripts.

African Poetry Book Fund Dawes is the founding editor of the African Poetry Book Fund (APBF). The series itself was started in 2014 and established through the generosity of Laura Sillerman and Robert F. X. Sillerman. The goal of the APBF is to promote and publicize "the poetic arts through its book series, contests, workshops, and seminars and through its collaborations with publishers, festivals, booking agents, colleges, universities, conferences and all other entities that share an interest in the poetic arts of Africa."

(Co-editor with Chris Abani) (with Chris Abani)

(with Chris Abani) (with Chris Abani)

Kwame Dawes

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