Shara McCallum

Shara McCallum is an American poet. She was awarded a 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Poetry.[1] McCallum is the author of four poetry collections. She currently lives in Pennsylvania.

Shara McCallum
Born	Kingston, Jamaica
Alma mater	University of Miami, University of Maryland, College Park Binghamton University
Genre	Poetry
Notable awards	National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
Website
www.sharamccallum.com

Life and work

McCallum was born in Kingston, Jamaica to an African Jamaican father and a Venezuelan mother.[2] Her family migrated to the United States when she was nine. She graduated from the University of Miami, from the University of Maryland[3] with an M.F.A., and from Binghamton University in New York with a PhD.[4] She has taught at the Stonecoast MFA program.[5]

McCallum directs the Stadler Center for Poetry and taught creative writing and literature at Bucknell University.[6][7] McCallum is now a professor of English at Penn State University. She lives in Pennsylvania with her family.[8]

McCallum's work has appeared in The Antioch Review,[9][10] Callaloo,[11] Chelsea, The Iowa Review, Verse, Creative Nonfiction, Seneca Review,[12] and Witness.

Reception

Shara McCallum's first collection, The Water Between Us, is a book of poetry that expresses the torments and glories of growing up. McCallum's poems are startling in their breadth of experience and language. From the beginning McCallum asks to free people's expectations with her epigraph, "Only the magic and the dream are true. All the rest's a lie".[13]

Honors and awards

• 1998 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize
• Barbara Deming Memorial Fund grant
• Tennessee Individual Artist Grant in Literature
• 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Poetry[1]
• Poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.[2]
• Bynner award from the Library of Congress.[1]
• 2018 OCM Bocas prize for Caribbean Literature for poetry.[1]

Publications

Full-length poetry collections

• The Water Between Us. University of Pittsburgh Press. 1999. ISBN 978-0-8229-5710-2.
• Song of Thieves. University of Pittsburgh Press. 2003. ISBN 978-0-8229-5813-0.
• This Strange Land (Alice James Books, forthcoming)[14]
• Madwoman (Alice James Books 2017)[15]

Nonfiction

• Emmanuel Sampath Nelson, ed. (2000). "Mary Church Terrell". African American authors, 1745–1945. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-30910-6.

Anthology publications

• Michael Collier, ed. (2000). The New American Poets: A Bread Loaf Anthology Series. University Press of New England.
• E. Ethelbert Miller, ed. (2002). Beyond the Frontier. Black Classic Press. ISBN 978-1-57478-017-8.
• Billy Collins, ed. (2003). Poetry 180: a turning back to poetry. Random House Trade Paperbacks. ISBN 978-0-8129-6887-3.
• Kei Miller, ed. (2007). New Caribbean poetry: an anthology. Carcanet. ISBN 978-1-85754-941-6.

References

1. National Endowment of the Arts 2011 Poetry Fellows Archived 27 November 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Nea.gov. Retrieved on 20 October 2011.
2. Foundation, Poetry (4 February 2020). "Shara McCallum". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
3. College Park Magazine | Feature | University of Maryland Archived 30 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Urhome.umd.edu (18 October 1972). Retrieved on 20 October 2011.
4. Shara McCallum, Poetry, Poems, Bios & More. Poets.org. Retrieved on 20 October 2011.
5. Archived 6 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine
6. From the Director of the Stadler Center for Poetry || Bucknell University. Bucknell.edu. Retrieved on 20 October 2011.
7. Shara McCallum || Bucknell University. Bucknell.edu (1 October 2011). Retrieved on 20 October 2011.
8. Shara McCallum | Directory of Writers | Poets & Writers. Pw.org (16 June 2009). Retrieved on 20 October 2011.
9. Shara McCallum (Spring 2001). "Jamaica, October 18, 1972". The Antioch Review. 59 (2): 281. doi:10.2307/4614160. JSTOR 4614160.
10. Shara McCallum (Autumn 2004). "Penelope". The Antioch Review. 62 (4): 707. doi:10.2307/4614740. JSTOR 4614740.
11. Project MUSE – Callaloo – Talisman. Muse.jhu.edu. Retrieved on 20 October 2011.
12. The Seneca Review. Hobart Student Association. 1998.
13. Magdelyn Hammond. "The Water Between Us, by Shara McCallum: A Review". Smartish Pace.
14. Alice James Books > News & Events Archived 5 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine
15. McCallum, Shara, 1972- (2017). Madwoman. Farmington, Maine. ISBN 978-1-938584-28-2. OCLC 945949128.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

External links

• "An Interview with Shara McCallum", Smartish Pace, Magdelyn Hammond
• "Shara McCallum, Director of the Stadler Center for Poetry", YouTube
• "For Rachel, Just before Speech", ars poetica
• "The Art Room", Poetry Foundation
• "Matins". Ploughshares. Spring 2002. Archived from the original on 20 August 2006.
• "The News", Cave Canem