Joy Priest
Joy Priest | |
|---|---|
 Priest reading at Split This Rock in 2014 | |
| Born | Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Occupations |
|
| Writing career | |
| Genre | Poetry |
| Notable work | Horsepower (2020) |
| Website | joypriest |
Joy Priest is an American poet, editor, and academic from Louisville, Kentucky.[1] She is the author of Horsepower, winner of the 2019 Donald Hall Prize for Poetry, selected by Natasha Trethewey,[1][2] and the editor of Once a City Said: A Louisville Poets Anthology.[3] She is an assistant professor in the MFA Writing Program at the University of Pittsburgh and Curator of Community Programs & Practice at the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics (CAAPP).[4]
Early life and education
[edit]Priest was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, near Churchill Downs.[1][5] She received a B.S. in journalism from the University of Kentucky,[2] an M.F.A. in poetry from the University of South Carolina,[6] and a Ph.D. in creative writing from the University of Houston.[7][4]
Career
[edit]Priest became a member of the Affrilachian Poets in 2013.[8] Her debut collection, Horsepower, was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in September 2020 as part of the Pitt Poetry Series,[9] after Natasha Trethewey selected it as the winner of the 2019 Donald Hall Prize for Poetry, awarded by the Association of Writers & Writing Programs.[1][2] The collection was called "one of the best debuts of the year" by The Millions.[10]
In 2023, Priest edited Once a City Said: A Louisville Poets Anthology (Sarabande Books), a collection of thirty-seven Louisville poets conceived in the aftermath of the 2020 Louisville protests following the death of Breonna Taylor.[3] Beginning in fall 2023, she joined the University of Pittsburgh as an assistant professor and CAAPP Curator of Community Programs & Practice.[4] Her second collection, The Black Outside, is forthcoming from Duke University Press in 2027.[4]
Priest's writing has appeared in The Atlantic,[11] Boston Review,[12] The New Republic,[13] and Sewanee Review, among others.[14]
Awards and honors
[edit]- 2019 Donald Hall Prize for Poetry, Association of Writers & Writing Programs[2]
- 2019–2020 Fellowship in Poetry, Fine Arts Work Center at Provincetown[15]
- 2020 Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize, American Poetry Review[16]
- 2021 Literary Fellowship in Poetry, National Endowment for the Arts[1][7]
- 2023 Aiken Taylor Award lecturer, Sewanee Review[17]
Works
[edit]Poetry collections
[edit]- Horsepower (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020) ISBN 978-0-8229-6619-7
- The Black Outside (Duke University Press, forthcoming 2027)
Edited anthologies
[edit]- Once a City Said: A Louisville Poets Anthology (Sarabande Books, 2023) ISBN 978-1-956046-08-3
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 "Joy Priest". National Endowment for the Arts. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 "UK Alumna Joy Priest Awarded Coveted Donald Hall Prize for Poetry". UKNow, University of Kentucky. August 20, 2019. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
- 1 2 "Once a City Said: A Louisville Poets Anthology". Sarabande Books. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 "Joy Priest". University of Pittsburgh, Department of English. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
- ↑ "Interview with Joy Priest". Still: The Journal. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
- ↑ "Joy of Poetry". University of South Carolina. May 2019. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
- 1 2 "UH Poet Awarded National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship". University of Houston. February 23, 2021. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
- ↑ "Q&A with Horsepower Author Joy Priest". University of Pittsburgh Press. June 25, 2020. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
- ↑ "Horsepower". University of Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
- ↑ Ripatrazone, Nick (September 4, 2020). "Must-Read Poetry: September 2020". The Millions. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
- ↑ "A Poem by Joy Priest: All Mothers - The Atlantic". theatlantic.com. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
- ↑ "Three Poems". Boston Review. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
- ↑ Priest, Joy (October 16, 2025). "The Black Outside". The New Republic. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
- ↑ Priest, Joy. "From the Other Side of a Migratory Silence: On the Work of Patricia Smith". The Sewanee Review. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
- ↑ "All Fellows". Fine Arts Work Center. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
- ↑ "Joy Priest". American Poetry Review. June 29, 2020. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
- ↑ "The 2023 Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry". The Sewanee Review. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
External links
[edit]- Living people
- American women poets
- 21st-century American poets
- 21st-century American women writers
- African-American poets
- African-American women writers
- Poets from Kentucky
- Writers from Louisville, Kentucky
- University of Kentucky alumni
- University of South Carolina alumni
- University of Houston alumni
- University of Pittsburgh faculty
- Affrilachian Poets
- National Endowment for the Arts Fellows
- American women academics
- American book editors
- Academics from Louisville, Kentucky