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Mari Evans Bio
Personal
Born 16 July 1923 in
Toledo , Ohio
Attended the University
of Toledo
Lives in Indianapolis, Indiana
Like any good People's Poet, Evans is a sharp
observer and an honest person. . . . Just as
fortunately for us, she is careful that all she does
tell is the truth. The whole truth, the poetic truth.
The truth for, about and to the people.” -- Maya
Angelou
Professional
Served as the Distinguished Writer and Assistant
Professor of the African American and Resource Center at
Cornell University
Taught at Indiana University, the State University of
New York at Albany, the University of Miami at Coral
Gables and at Spelman College, Atlanta
Publications:
Books of Poetry
A Dark and Splendid
Mass (Harlem River Press, 1992)
Nightstar: 1973-1978
(1981)
I Am a Black Woman
(1970)
Where Is All the Music? (1968)
Criticism
Black Women Writers (1950-1980): A Critical
Evaluation (Contributor and Editor, 1984)
Books for Children
Dear Corinne, Tell Somebody! Love, Annie: A Book
about Secrets (1999)
Singing Black: Alternative Nursery Rhymes for
Children (1998, illustrated by Ramon Price)
Jim Flying High (1979, illustrated by Ashley
Bryan)
Rap Stories (1974)
J.D. (1973, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney)
Plays
Eye (1979), an
adaptation of Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were
Watching God
River of My Song (1977)
Honors
Fellowships from the
MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, the National Endowment for the
Arts, the John Hay Whitney Fellowship
Black Academy of Arts
and Letters First Poetry Award (1975)
Zora Neale Hurston Society Award for Outstanding
Contributions to Literature (1993), Alain
Locke-Gwendolyn Brooks Award for Excellence in
Literature (1995)
Celebrated with her
photo on a Ugandan postage stamp (1997)
Inducted into Chicago
State University's National Literary Hall of Fame for
Writers of African Descent (1998)
Received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from
Martin University (1999) Other Sites:
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/poetry/evans_mari.html |
