A. Van Jordan

A. Van Jordan (born March 5, 1965) is an African-American poet and academic.

Life
Jordan was born and raised in Akron, Ohio.

He graduated from Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio, in 1987 with a B.A, from Howard University in 1990 with an M.A., and from Warren Wilson College in 1998, with an M.F.A.. He lived in Washington, D.C.

He taught at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the University of Texas at Austin, and Warren Wilson College. He teaches at the University of Michigan.

His work has appeared in Ploughshares, and Callaloo amongst other publications.

Recognition
His first poetry collection, RISE, won a PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award, and was selected for the Book-of-the-Month Club of the Academy of American Poets. Other awards he has won include:

Awards

 * 2004 Whiting Writers' Award
 * 2005 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards
 * 2006 Pushcart Prize, 30th Edition.
 * 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship
 * 2008 United States Artist Williams Fellowship

Publications

 * "Einstein Defining Special Relativity"; "Einstein Ruminates on Relativity", Reading Between A&B

Poetry

 * Rise (Tia Chucha Press, 2001)
 * M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A (W. W. Norton & Company, 2004)
 * Quantum Lyrics (W. W. Norton & Company, 2007)