Kwame Dawes

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. 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. 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.

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, 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 is the culmination of his project. Dawes is director of the Calabash International Literary Festival, a yearly event in Jamaica.

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. 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).

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: 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,
• • 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,
• I Saw Your Face, with Tom Feelings, Dial Books, 2005,
• Wisteria: Twilight Songs from the Swamp Country, Red Hen Press, 2006,
• Impossible Flying, Peepal Tree Press, 2007,
• Hope's Hospice, Peepal Tree Press, 2009,
• 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,
• City of Bones: A Testament, Northwestern University Press, 2017,

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,
• 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)

References

References

1. Seeger, Roy, [https://books.google.com/books?id=zVHGBwAAQBAJ&dq=%22kwame+dawes%22+born+in+ghana+to+%22neville+dawes%22&pg=PT94 "Dawes, Kwame (b. 1962)"], in Tom Mack (ed.), ''The South Carolina Encyclopedia Guide to South Carolina Writers'', University of South Carolina Press, 2014.
2. He studied and taught in [[New Brunswick]], Canada, on a [[Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan. link. (15 July 2011 , Peepal Tree Press.)
3. [https://www.cas.sc.edu/engl/people/pages/dawes.html Kwame Dawes page], University of South Carolina.
4. "SC Book Festival | A New Chapter in Essay Writing".
5. "Kwame Dawes". Department of English, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
6. [https://cas.unl.edu/endowed-professors-and-chairs "Endowed Professors and Chairs"], College of Arts and Sciences, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
7. Kyzer, Kevin. (23 September 2009). "USC's Kwame Dawes Wins Emmy".
8. [http://www.livehopelove.com/ "HOPE: Living & Loving with HIV in Jamaica"]. Pulitzer Center.
9. "Professor Kwame Dawes wins Emmy for HIV project", ''[[Jamaica Observer]]'', 23 September 2009.
10. Holleman, Joey. (9 January 2011). "Haiti, through a poet's eyes". The State.
11. [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/kwame-dawes Kwame Dawes biography], Poetry Foundation.
12. (21 September 2011). "Acclaimed author, poet takes the helm of Prairie Schooner".
13. (5 June 2025). "Schaffert named editor of Prairie Schooner".
14. "Writers for Writers Awards, Editor's Award".
15. "About ABPF".
16. "Publish with ABPF". African Poetry Book Fund.
17. "Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry".
18. (9 June 2016). "Respect Due: Symposium on the Work of Kwame Dawes". Poetry International.
19. Goodison, Lorna. "Respect Due To Kwame".
20. [https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/kwame-dawes "Kwame Dawes"], Poets.org.
21. (18 June 2018). "Poets honoured in RSL’s election of new Fellows".
22. [[Otosirieze Obi-Young. Obi-Young, Otosirieze]] (14 March 2019), [https://brittlepaper.com/2019/03/professor-kwame-dawes-awarded-165000-windham-campbell-prize-alongside-seven-others/ "Professor Kwame Dawes Awarded $165,000 Windham-Campbell Prize, Alongside Seven Others"], ''[[Brittle Paper]]''.
23. KHGI. (2020-09-09). "Kwame Dawes named successor for national "American Life in Poetry" column".
24. "African Literary Person of the Year".
25. Ghosh, Kuhelika. (22 April 2024). "Ghanaian Author Kwame Dawes Honored as the Poet Laureate of Jamaica".
26. "POET LAUREATE OF JAMAICA {{!}} 2024-2027 {{!}} Prof. Kwame Dawes CD".
27. (3 September 2024). "Brown welcomes talented group of 67 new faculty members". Brown University.
28. "Kwame Dawes Professor of Literary Arts". Brown University.
29. (March 12, 2019). "Kwame Dawes". Windham–Campbell Literature Prizes.
30. Anuonye, Darlington Chibueze. (22 December 2022). "Prof. Kwame Dawes is Brittle Paper's 2022 Literary Person of the Year".
31. (2025-07-10). "Faculty at Brown earn prominent awards, distinctions in Spring 2025 {{!}} Brown University".
32. [https://www.amazon.com/Resisting-Anomie-Kwame-Dawes/dp/0864921470/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474310288&sr=8-1&keywords=resisting+the+anomie "Resisting the Anomie"] at Amazon.
33. [http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/Literature/Literature-idx?id=Literature.Dawes "Bruised Totems"] at University of Wisconsin Digital Collections.
34. [https://www.amazon.com/Saw-Your-Face-Tom-Feelings/dp/0803718942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474310332&sr=1-1&keywords=i+saw+your+face "I Saw Your Face"] at Amazon.
35. [https://www.amazon.com/WISTERIA-POEMS-COUNTRY-Kwame-Dawes/dp/159709059X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1467260643&sr=1-1&keywords=wisteria+kwame+dawes "Wisteria"] at Amazon.
36. [https://www.amazon.com/Impossible-Flying-Kwame-Dawes/dp/1845230396/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1467259246&sr=1-1&keywords=kwame+dawes+impossible+flying "Impossible Flying"], Amazon.
37. [https://www.amazon.com/Hopes-Hospice-Other-Poems-Peepal/dp/1845230787/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1467256671&sr=1-1&keywords=kwame+dawes+hope%27s+hospice "Hope's Hospice and Other Poems (Peepal Tree Caribbean Poetry)"], Amazon.
38. [https://www.amazon.com/Speak-Here-There-Kwame-Dawes/dp/1845233190/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474311163&sr=1-1&keywords=speak+from+here+to+there "Speak from Here to There"], Amazon.
39. [https://www.amazon.com/City-Bones-Testament-Triquarterly-Books/dp/0810134624/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474311334&sr=1-1&keywords=city+of+bones+kwame "City of Bones: A Testament (Triquarterly Books)"], Amazon.
40. [https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Mysticism-Towards-Reggae-Aesthetic/dp/1900715228/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474311890&sr=8-1&keywords=natural+mysticism "Natural Mysticism: Towards a New Reggae Aesthetic"] at Amazon.
41. "Support ABPF".