Cornelius EadyRane Arroyo
Poetry

Poet and playwright Cornelius Eady’s most recent collection of poems, Brutal Imagination—a National Book Award finalist in 2001—is comprised of two cycles, the first of which is narrated largely by the black kidnapper invented by Susan Smith to cover up the killing of her two small sons. Eady’s work, including five additional books of poetry and two award-winning plays, has garnered heaps of praise from critics and readers alike. Novelist Bebe Moore Campbell notes that “Eady fuses headlines and history with language that is a field holler, a blues shout, a hip hop rap that combusts inside the sould and keeps on burning.” Eady is co-founder, with poet Toi Derricote, of Cave Canem, a summer workshop/retreat for African American poets.