Joy Priest

Poet

Author's Bio

Joy Priest is the author of Horsepower (Pitt Poetry Series, 2020), winner of the Donald Hall Prize for Poetry, and the editor of Once a City Said: A Louisville Poets Anthology (Sarabande, 2023). She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a Fine Arts Work Center fellowship, and the Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize from the American Poetry Review. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The AtlanticThe Nation, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. Joy was born in Louisville, KY and has facilitated creative writing workshops with incarcerated juvenile and adult women. Beginning Fall 2023, she will be an Assistant Professor of African American / African Diasporic Poetry at the University of Pittsburgh and the Curator of Community Programs & Praxis at the Center for African American Poetry & Poetics.

Publications & Prizes

Anthology:
Once a City Said: A Louisville Poets Anthology (Sarabande Books, 2023)
Book:
Prizes won: 

 2020 Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize | 2019 Donald Hall Prize from AWP for debut collection HORSEPOWER | 2019-2020 Fine Arts Work Center Fellow in Poetry | 2019 Gearhart Prize from The Southeast Review | 2019 Nikki Giovanni Scholar at The Appalachian Writers' Workshop | 2018 Gregory Pardlo Scholar at The Frost Place | 2016 College Writers' Award from the Hurston/Wright Foundation | 2015 Emerging Artist Award from the Kentucky Arts Council | 2015 Summer Artist Residency from the Kentucky Foundation for Women

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Identifies as: 
African American
Prefers to work with: 
At Risk Youth, Incarcerated individuals, Schools, Teenagers
Born in: 
Louisville, KY
Kentucky
Raised in: 
Louisville, KY
Kentucky
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Jun 30, 2023