Poets & Writers Theater

In this video for the Poets House Hard Hat Reading series, poet and professor Kwame Dawes reads “Acceptance” by his mentor and father Neville Dawes, and his own poem “Sturge Town Redux,” which will appear in his collection Sturge Town, forthcoming from Norton.

“I do come back to poets from the Caribbean especially, who gave me permission to be a writer.” In this interview with City of Asylum, Kwame Dawes talks about the writers whose work he revisits, his writing routine, and why he doesn’t use the word “inspiration.” Dawes is the editor in chief of Prairie Schooner and is featured in “Telling a Different Story: How to Cultivate Inclusivity at Literary Magazines” in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Kwame Dawes talks about the importance of literary activism at the National Book Foundation's 2016 "Why Reading Matters" conference in New York City. Dawes is the founder of the African Poetry Book Fund, which was an honoree of the National Book Foundation's 2015 Innovations in Reading Prize.

Author Kwame Dawes recently appeared on the PBS NewsHour to discuss his experience in Haiti, where he has traveled over the past year to report on and write poems about life after the earthquake last January. After you watch the clip, check out Kevin Nance's article "Haiti Noir, Haiti Light" in the new issue.