Carmen Gillespie

Carmen Gillespie is professor of English, director of the Griot Institute for Africana Studies, and University arts coordinator at Bucknell University. In addition to articles and poems, she is author of the scholarly works A Critical Companion to Toni Morrison (2007) and A Critical Companion to show more Alice Walker (2011). Dr. Gillespie has also published a poetry chapbooks, Lining the Rails (2008), and a poetry collection, Jonestown: A Vexation, which won the 2011 Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Prize. Dr. Gillespie's awards include an Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship for Excellence in Poetry and grants from the NEH, the Mellon Foundation, the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. She is a Cave Canem Fellow and a Fulbright scholar. Essence named Dr. Gillespie one of its 40 favorite poets in commemoration of the magazine's 40th anniversary. show less