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Dawn Lundy Martin

ドーン・ランディー・マーティン

Dawn Lundy Martin

Profile

Gender
Female
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
Brooklyn, New York → Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania → Montclair, New Jersey → Annandale-on-Hudson, New York

Career

Occupations
poet, essayist, memoirist, professor
Active Years
2000-
Affiliations
University of Pittsburgh, Montclair State University, The New School, Bard College, Center for African American Poetry and Poetics (founding director)
Nominations
National Book Critics Circle Award (finalist, 2024)

Education

University of Connecticut
English
Degree: BA
Country: United States
San Francisco State University
English/Creative Writing
Degree: MA
Country: United States
University of Massachusetts Amherst
English
Degree: PhD
Country: United States

Awards

May Sarton Prize for Poetry
Category: Poetry
Organization: Academy of American Arts and Sciences
Result: winner
Lambda Literary Award (Lesbian Poetry)
Category: Lesbian Poetry
Organization: Lambda Literary Foundation
Result: winner
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Fellowship in Creative Writing for Nonfiction
Organization: National Endowment for the Arts
Result: fellowship
United States Artists Fellow
2022
Organization: United States Artists
Result: fellow
Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award
2019
Work: Good Stock, Strange Blood
Category: Poetry
Organization: Tufts Poetry Awards
Result: winner
National Book Critics Circle Award (finalist)
2024
Work: Instructions for The Lovers
Organization: National Book Critics Circle
Result: finalist

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

the morning hour

2003 Poetry

An early collection of poems employing fragmentary forms to explore self and relationships.

selfrelationshipsthe everyday

the undress

2006 Poetry

Poems addressing body, desire, and self-expression, notable for experimental language.

bodydesireself-expression

A Gathering of Matter / A Matter of Gathering

2007 Poetry

Winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize; poems that treat memory and collectivity as material.

memorycollectivityrace

Candy

2011 Poetry

A collection of poems where personal and political fragments intersect, exploring language and the body.

languagethe bodypolitics

Discipline

2011 Poetry

Winner of the Nightboat Books Prize; fragmented poems about discipline, constraint, and self-formation.

disciplineoppressionidentity

Life in a Box is a Pretty Life

2015 Poetry

A fragmented, polyvocal collection illuminating family, history, and social structures.

familyhistorysocial structures

Good Stock, Strange Blood

2017 Poetry

A collection on lineage, origin, body, and memory; winner of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award.

lineagebodymemory

Instructions for The Lovers

2024 Poetry

A recent work of experimental poems traversing love, relationships, violence, and healing; NBCC finalist.

loverelationshipshealing

Bibliography

  • the morning hour (2003)
  • the undress (2006)
  • A Gathering of Matter / A Matter of Gathering (2007)
  • Candy (2011)
  • Discipline (2011)
  • Life in a Box is a Pretty Life (2015)
  • Good Stock, Strange Blood (2017)
  • Instructions for The Lovers (2024)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
experimental, fragmentary poeticslayered integration of personal experience and political themes
Recurring Motifs
the bodymemoryfamily/lineagerace and gender

Legacy

Regarded as a significant voice in contemporary American poetry; noted for experimental forms and a fusion of political and personal themes, attracting attention in both academic and literary circles.

Academic Societies

  • Poetry Society of America (associated)

Trivia

  • Winner of awards including the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, Nightboat Books Prize, and Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award.
  • Inaugural Toi Derricotte Chair in English at University of Pittsburgh and founding director of the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics.