henry 7. reneau, jr.

Poet

Lindsay, CA

California US

Email:

Author's Bio

henry 7. reneau, jr. attended Porterville College, double-majoring in English and Social Science, and UCDavis, double-majoring in English and African/African-American Studies. He is a poet, book reviewer, short story writer, and essayist who has been published in more than 350 journals, magazines and anthologies, among them/:

Mandala Literary Journal; Rigorous; Literary Orphans; We Are Antifa; Winter Tangerine; LAROLA; Prairie Schooner; Raven Chronicles (Take a Stand: Art Against Hate Anthology); The Ilanot Review; RATTLE; Harbinger Asylum; The Manhattanville Review; Poets Reading the News; HEArt Online; Frontier Poetry-Types Of Burns; Pretty Owl Poetry; Into The Void; Degenerates: Voices For Peace; Barzakh Magazine; cahoodaloodaling; Outrage: A Protest Anthology For Injustice in a Post 9/11 World (Slough Press); Glass Poetry Press-Poets Resist; Superstition Review; TriQuarterly; Notre Dame Review and The Social Justice Review.

He has worked in collaboration with noted poet, and biographer, Quincy Troupe, the singer/songwriter, Ray Manzarek, of The Doors, noted artist Milton Bowens, and as a featured poet in the Weasel Press documentary, “Poetry Is Dead.”

He has appeared as a featured poet at venues as varied as the University of Houston, TX; Da Poetry Lounge, Los Angeles, CA; 100,000 Poets For Change, Houston, TX; the University of California at Davis, CA; California State University, Sacramento, CA; The Sacramento Poetry Center; the Poetry Night Reading Series at the Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA; Raven Chronicles-Take A Stand: Art Against Hate-Online Event #7 and as the subject of interviews with Arts By The People, the Houston radio station KPFT Living Arts Interviews, and the UCDavis radio station KDVS Freeform Radio.

Publications & Prizes

Anthologies:

Take a Stand: Art Against Hate (Raven Chronicles Press, 2020)

Selfhood: Varieties of Experience (Transcendent Zero Press, 2016)

Outrage: A Protest Anthology For Injustice In A 9/11 World (Slough Press, 2015)

Untameable City: Poems on the Nature of Houston (Mutabilis Press, 2015)

Books:

freedomland blues (Transcendent Zero Press, 2014)

physiography of the fittest (Kind of a Hurricane Press, 2014)

Journals:

Harbinger Asylum

Tidal Basin Review

Winter Tangerine Review

Prizes won:

1. “Back Yonda” in Porterville College Literacy Competition for 2003 (2nd Place)

2. “2002: BLACK, BUT. . .” in Porterville College Literacy Competition for 2003 (3rd Place)

3. “new day” in SN&R Student Poetry Contest for 2008 (1st Place)

4. “the weight” in SN&R Student Poetry Contest for 2008 (Honorable Mention)

5. “anacoluthon” in Ina Coolbrith Memorial Poetry Prize for 2008 (Statewide UC Finalist)

6. “7th & k” in Celeste Turner Wright Poetry Prize for 2008 from the Academy of American Poets (2nd Place)

7. “Racial Identity: The Forces That Shape and Define Who We Are What We Are” in UCDavis Prized Writing for 2009 (Honorable Mention)

8. “the soul would have no rainbow if eyes had no tears: inde trae et lacrimae” in Annual Jack Kerouac Poetry Contest for 2009 (3rd Place)

9. “two birds: this flesh, this spirit, escaping the painting” in Annual Jack Kerouac Poetry Contest for 2010 (Honorable Mention)

10. Collaborative readings with Toni Passerell Trio in Davis Annual Jazz & Beat Arts Festival: Beyond The Beat Generation (2008 & 2009 & 2010)

11. “The Lion Pauses” in Sacramento Poetry Center Poetry Contest 2011 (Honorable Mention)

12. “E=MC²” in Kind Of A Hurricane Press Editor’s Choice Award for 2013 (Semi-finalist)

13. “channel 7 at 11” in LAROLA (Nominated for Pushcart Prize-11/20/15)

14. “Teviston, CA (April 4, 1968)” in 2015 Cardinal Sins Winter Contest-Poetry (1st Place)

15. “Blackness of Mother Africa Tongue” in Adelaide Literary Magazine Awards 2017 (Poetry Finalist)

16. The Book Of Blue(s) : Tryin' To Make A Dollar Outta' Fifteen Cents in 2018 Digging Press Chapbook Series (Poetry Finalist)

17. “Saints of Imperfection, or An Emotional Divide” in Wingless Dreamer Literary Contest 2019 (Honorable Mention)

18. “Her/Him/Our/Their/Us/Them/They Body” in 2019 Brain Mill Press National Poetry Month Contest Editors’ Pick

19. “I Blues Tha Rain, 40 Days & 40 Nights” in cahoodaloodaling (Nominated for Best of the Net-9/22/19)

20. “first impressions” in Poets Reading the News (Nominated for Best of the Net-10/5/19)

21. “The Saga of The Exit Wound” in The Ilanot Review (Nominated for Pushcart Prize-10/9/19)

22. The Book Of Blue(s) : Tryin' To Make A Dollar Outta' Fifteen Cents in 2020 Digging Press Chapbook Series (Poetry Semi-Finalist)

23. “Jackie Kennedy in Pink Chanel” in Palm Beach Poetry Festival ART COUTURE POETRY CONTEST (2020, Honorable Mention)

24. “e pluribus unum Blues” in Digging Press Revolutionary Broadside Series, 2020

25. “Civil Insubordination, or Where In Amerikkka Are Black People Safe From Racism?” in Into The Void (We Are Antifa) (Nominated for Pushcart Prize-11/22/20)

26. “The Book of Hours” in The Wrath-Bearing Tree (Nominated for Pushcart Prize-11/25/20)

Personal Favorites

Favorite authors:

June Jordan; torrin a. greathouse; Scherezade Siobhan; E. Annie Proulx; Flannery O'Conner; Anne Waldman; Margaret Atwood; Angela Y. Davis; Laura Kasischke; Patricia Smith;

What I'm reading now:

News Of The World by Paulette Jiles, The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis , The Girl Who Takes An Eye For An Eye by David Lagercrantz

More Information

Gives readings:

Yes

Travels for readings:

Yes

Identifies as:

Black

Prefers to work with:

Adults

Fluent in:

English

Born in:

Tulare, CA

California

Raised in:

Teviston, CA

California

Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.

Last update: Mar 17, 2021