Aracelis Girmay has been awarded a 2011 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Literature Fellowship in poetry. The NEA gives out a limited number of fellowships each year to published poets.

Professor Girmay calls the grant “a gift of time.” It will enable her “to create my own research and writing retreat,” she says.

Girmay’s first poetry collection, Teeth, was published by Curbstone Press in 2007. Her second, Kingdom Animalia, is scheduled for release in fall 2011 from BOA Editions. It has received the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award, given every two years to a poet with a new book of exceptional merit.

Read about Professor Girmay’s work with Hampshire students >>

FEATURED IN O MAGAZINE

In addition to widespread recognition for her writing style, Professor Girmay recently got some major attention for her fashion style. She is one of eight rising poets featured in the March 8 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine. Read>>

LISTEN TO THE STORY ON NPR

Poetry, "a deep, deep place to grow as a human being." Listen to Professor Girmay on NPR's Listen to the Story on April 4, 2011.