Nikky Finney

Nikky Finney is a renowned poet whose books include Love Child’s Hotbed of Occasional Poetry; On Wings Made of Gauze; Rice; The World Is Round; and Head Off & Split, which won the National Book Award for Poetry. Finney is Carolina Distinguished Professor at USC in Columbia. She is also the Executive Director of the newly launched Ernest A. Finney, Jr. Cultural Arts Center in Columbia, a 21st century arts and cultural center named for her father.

A Chancellor of the American Academy of Poets and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she holds the John H. Bennett, Jr. Chair in Creative Writing and Southern Literature, and a Carolina Distinguished Professorship at the University of South Carolina.

Photo by Don J. Usner