Toi Derricotte

Toi Derricotte is the author of “I”: New and Selected Poems (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019), a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award; The Undertaker’s Daughter (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011); Natural Birth (Firebrand Books, 2000); Tender (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997), winner of the Paterson Poetry Prize; and Captivity (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1989). She is also the author of The Black Notebooks (W.W. Norton, 1999), winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Nonfiction.

Derricotte’s honors include the 2024 Lannan Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry, the Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award from Poets & Writers, the Distinguished Pioneering of the Arts Award from the United Black Artists, the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award and the Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of America, the Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement for Previous Winners of The Paterson Poetry Prize, the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry, two Pushcart Prizes, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Rockefeller Foundation. In 2021, she received the Wallace Stevens Award, given annually by the Academy of American Poets to recognize outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry.

She is also the founder, along with poet Cornelius Eady, of Cave Canem, the preeminent organization devoted to the development and support of Black poetry in the United States. Cave Canem’s work has changed the landscape of American poetry. A mentor to a generation of Black poets, she has been awarded the National Book Foundation’s Literarian Award for service to the literary community, the Elizabeth Kray Award for service to the field of poetry from Poets House, and the 2023 Pegasus Award for Service in Poetry.

Derricotte is a professor emerita at the University of Pittsburgh and a former chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. Born and raised in Detroit, she currently lives in Pittsburgh.