Tyehimba Jess



Tyehimba Jess (born Detroit) is an American poet.

Life
Jess was born in Detroit, Michigan. He graduated with a B.A. from the University of Chicago, and with an M.F.A. from New York University.

He teaches poetry and fiction at CUNY College of Staten Island and is the faculty adviser for Caesura, the university's literary arts magazine.

His work has appeared in Soul Fires: Young Black Men on Love and Violence, Obsidian III: Literature in the African Diaspora, Power Lines: Ten Years of Poetry from Chicago's Guild Complex, and Slam: The Art of Performance Poetry.

Awards

 * 2000 Duncan YMCA Writer's Voice Fellow
 * Illinois Arts Council Artist Roster
 * 2000 Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship
 * 2001 Chicago Sun Times Poetry Award.
 * 2001 Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Poetry Awards
 * 2001-2 Ragdale Fellow
 * 2004 National Poetry Series
 * 2004 NEA grant
 * 2006 Whiting Writers' Award
 * 2007 Lannan residency

Anthologized

 * Soulfires: Young Black Men in Love and Violence (1996)
 * Slam: The Competitive Art of Performance Poetry (2000)
 * Dark Matter 2: Reading the Bones (2004)

Reviews
"Tyehimba Jess ... coaxes an astonishingly rich world from the wood and steel scraps of the life he finds before him. He chronicles the story of Leadbelly — the killer, the lover, the victim, the son, the greatest bluesman of his time—and he has the chops to animate this complex man."