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Naomi Long Madgett

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Naomi Long Madgett (born July 5, 1923) is an African-American poet and teacher, and senior editor of Lotus Press.

Naomi long madgett-image-177

Naomi Long Madgett. Courtesy Michigan Women's Hall of Fame.

Life[]

Youth and education[]

Madgett was born Naomi Cornelia Long, the daughter of a Baptist minister, in Norfolk, Virginia, and spent her childhood in East Orange, New Jersey. She began writing at an early age.[1] While living in New Jersey, she went to an integrated school, where she faced racism.[2]

In 1937, her family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where Madgett was encouraged to write while attending high school. She read a wide range of content, from both white and black writers, from Aesop's fables and Robert T. Kerlin's anthology Negro Poets and Their Poems to Romantic and Victorian English poets such as John Keats, William Wordsworth, and Alfred Tennyson.[2]

At the age of 17 she published her 1st book of poetry, Songs to a Phantom Nightingale, a few days after graduating from high school.[2]

She attended Virginia State College (now Virginia State University), and graduated in 1945, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree.[2]

Career[]

Madgett married and moved to Detroit, where she worked for the Michigan Chronicle and gave birth to a daughter, Jill, in 1947.[2] While living in Detroit, Madgett became a teacher in the Detroit public school system. Her poem "Midway," from her collection One and the Many, attracted wide attention as it portrayed black people's struggles, and victories, in a time when racism was prevalent in the United States. In 1955, she graduated from Wayne State University with a M.Ed.[3]

In the 1960s, Madgett taught the 1st black literary course in the Detroit public school system. In 1968, she became a teacher in creative writing and black literature at Eastern Michigan University, where she taught until her retirement in 1984.[2]

Recognition[]

Octavia and other poems (1988) was national co-winner of the College Language Association Creative Achievement Award.

In 2013, Lotus Press announced its first annual Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award for excellence in a manuscript by an African-American poet.[4]

She was appointed poet laureate of Detroit in 200l.[5]

Some of Madgett's poems have been set up as songs and publicly performed.

Publications[]

Poetry[]

  • Songs to a Phantom Nightingale. New York: Fortuny's Publishers, 1941.
  • One and the Many: Poems. New York: Exposition Press, 1956.
  • Midway. 1956; New York: Fairchild Publications, 2006.
  • Star by Star: Poems. Detroit, MI: Harlo Press, 1965.
  • Sunny: From an old photograph. Detroit, MI: Broadside Press, 1965.
  • Pink Ladies in the Afternoon: New poems, 1965-1971. Detroit, MI: Lotus Press, 1972.
  • Woman with Flower. Detroit, MI: Lotus Press, 1977.
  • Exits and Entrances: New poems. Detroit, MI: Lotus Press, 1979. ISBN 978-0-916418-13-7
  • Nightingale: Juvenilia: Poems, 1934-1943. Detroit, MI: Lotus Press, 1981. ISBN 978-0-916418-30-4
  • Octavia, and other poems. Chicago: Third World Press, 1988. ISBN 978-0-88378-121-0
  • Remembrances of Spring: Collected early poems. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 1993. ISBN 978-0-87013-345-9
  • Connected Islands: New and selected poems. Detroit, MI: Lotus Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0-916418-94-6

Non-fiction[]

  • A Student's Guide to Creative Writing. Detroit, MI: Penway Books, 1980; East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 1993.
  • Pilgrim Journey: Autobiography. Detroit, MI: Lotus Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-916418-97-7

Edited[]

  • Deep Rivers: A portfolio: 20 contemporary black American poets. Detroit, MI: Lotus Press, 1974.
  • Adam of Ilfe: Black women in praise of black men (illustrated by Carl Owens). Detroit MI: Lotus Press, 1992. ISBN 0-916418-80-4


Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[6]

Audio / video[]

Naomi_Long_Madgett,_Detroit's_Poet_Laureate,_reads_Dudley_Randall_April_3,_2014_The_Citi

Naomi Long Madgett, Detroit's Poet Laureate, reads Dudley Randall April 3, 2014 The Citi

  • A Poet's Voice: Poetry from Naomi Long Madgett, from Octavia and other poems (VHS). New York: Carousel Film & Video, 1967; Berkeley, MI: Vander Films, 1997.[6]

See also[]

References[]

Notes[]

  1. ↑ Pilgrim Journey, Wayne State University Press. Accessed September 24, 2007. "The daughter of a Baptist pastor, Madgett was born in Virginia and moved with her family to East Orange, New Jersey as a toddler."
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 - TimeDispatch article on Naomi Long Madgett URL last accessed on 2006-08-16
  3. ↑ William L. Andrews, Frances Smith Foster, Trudier Harris, ed (2001). The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-513883-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=YpxByCkBXCYC&pg=PA266&dq=Naomi+Long+Madgett&lr=&cd=13#v=onepage&q=Naomi%20Long%20Madgett&f=false. 
  4. ↑ Lotus Press, Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award, Poets & Writers. Web, Mar. 11, 2013.
  5. ↑ Naomi Long Madgett, Poetry Foundation. Web, July 19, 2018.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Search results = au:Naomi Long Madgitt, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Nov. 29, 2014.

External links[]

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