Rickey Laurentiis

Rickey Laurentiis

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 


Education

Washington University in St Louis
MFA in Writing, 2014

Sarah Lawrence College
BA in Liberal Arts, 2011

Books

Boy with Thorn (Full Length: University of Pittsburgh, 2015)


Prime (Chapbook: Little Rock: Sibling Rivalry Press, 2014)
Whipped (Chappbook: Floating Wolf Quarterly, 2013)

Teaching in the University

University of Pittsburgh

  • "Crisis & Controversy in Contemporary American Poetry," Graduate Writing Department, Spring 2020
  • "Sustaining Revision: A Readings Course," Undergraduate Writing Department, Spring 2020
  • “Poetry & the Body Workshop" Graduate Writing Department, Spring 2019

Sarah Lawrence College

  • “The Body: A Poetry Seminar and Workshop," Undergraduate Writing Department, Spring 2017

Columbia University

  • “Sustained (Re)vision: Carl Phillips, Jorie Graham and Frank Bidart,” Graduate Writing Department, Fall 2016
  • “Advanced Poetry Workshop," Undergraduate Writing Department, Fall 2015

Washington University in St Louis

  • “Poetry Writing 1” Fall & Spring 2012-13, Undergraduate English Comp. Department


Teaching in the Community

The Shipman Agency's: The Work Room

  • “Crisis & Pleasure: A Care Seminar,” July 2020

Juniper Summer Writing Institute

  • “Sense, the Sentence, and Syntax: Poetry Workshop,” June 2018
  • “(Re)seeing (Re)vision with Rickey Laurewntiis,” June 2018

Carnegie Museum of Art

  • “From Body to Flesh: Intersections of Photography, Poetry & Dance with the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics” May 2018

92nd Street Y

  • “Advanced Poetry with Rickey Laurentiis: Sense & Syntax,” Summer Literary Programs, July 2017

Breadloaf Writers’ Conference

  • “Queering Form, Queering Poetics,” August 2016

Indiana University Writers Conference

  • “Body as Form as Body: Poetry Seminar,” June 2017

The Cooper Union

  • Writing Instructor for Painting, Drawing and Architecture Studios, Saturday Program for High School Youth, Fall 2015

Harlem Children’s Zone

  • Writing Corps Curriculum Coordinator and Teaching Specialist, Fall 2013-Fall 2014


Selected Panels, Presentations & Lectures 

Center for African American Poetry & Poetics

  • “The Black Ecstatic: An Evening of Poetry & Film,” October 2018 (as curator)

The Warhol Museum

  • “The Artist up Close: Devan Shimoyama,” March 2019

Carnegie Museum of Art

  • “Black Representation in Deana Lawson’s Photography” Forum Gallery, May 2018

Pratt College

  • “Notes Toward a Lecture on the Body: A Provocation II,” Black Lives Matter Conference, ““Queering Radical Pedagogies,” March 2018

Naropa University, Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics

  • “Notes Toward a Lecture on the Body: A Provocation I,” Embodied Poetics Conference, March 2018

Museum of Modern Art

  • “An Evening with Shikeith Cathey and Rickey Laurentiis,” Black Intimacy Film & Lecture Series, October 2017

Poets House

  • “Necessary Cuts, or Rediscovering Genius in the Mississippi Delta,” Emerging Poets Fellowship Public Lecture Series, April 2017

Sarah Lawrence College

  • “Scratching Through the Dark: Thinking Through Race in Poetry and Art,” Graduate MFA Lecture Series, May 2016

Dodge Poetry Festival

  • “Poetry and Pride,” October 2016
  • “Poets for Teachers,” October 2016

Association for Writers and Writing Programs

  • “Toward Some Ideas at My Being Queer, Queerness Itself, Queer Poetics and Simultaneity,” 2015
  • “Scratching Through the Dark: On Race,” 2014
  • “Am I A Man?” Writing Masculinities Panel, 2012 

Publications 

Poetry in Journals & Literary Magazines

2020

2018

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

  • "Southern Gothic," Poetry
  • "Swing Low," Poetry
  • "You Are Not Christ" (reprint), Poetry
  • "Epitaph at the Foot of the Stone," Anti-
  • "Quiet Please," Anti-
  • “Cirrhosis,” Lo-Ball Magazine
  • “One Look At You, My Heart Grows Tipsy,” Lo-Ball Magazine
  • “Stung,” Feminist Studies
  • “Hither-and-Yon,” Alaska Quarterly Review
  • "No Ararat," Linebreak
  • "Carnal Knowledge," Muzzle Magazine
  • “Faggot,” Knockout Literary Magazine
  • “Modern Ripple,” Knockout Literary Magazine
  • “—Me Tangere,” Knockout Literary Magazine

2011

  • “One Country,” Callaloo
  • “To Be Brought to Water,” Callaloo
  • “Do You Feel Me?” Callaloo
  • “Mood for Love,” The Feminist Wire
  • “Take it Easy,” The Feminist Wire
  • “Down Atlantis,” Tidal Basin Review

2010

2009

Anthologies & Art Books 

2018

  • “Boy with Thorn,” Nepantla: A Journal of QPOC Poetry, ed. Christopher Soma

2017

  • “Visible City,” A Tale of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation, ed. John Freeman

2016

  • "Vanitas with Negro Boy," "Black Iris," Brooklyn Poets Anthology, ed. by Jason Koo

2015

  • “Of the Leaves That Have Fallen” (excerpts), ExtraordinaryRendition:(American) Writers Speak of Palestine, edited by Ru Freeman
  • "Boy with Thorn," "Vanitas with Negro Boy," Bettering American Poetry, ed. various

2014

  • "Visible City," Prospect.3 Notes for Now, ed. Franklin Sirmans

2011

  • “Vignette,” Collective Brightness: LGBTIQ Poets on Faith, Religion and Spirituality, ed. Kevin Simmonds
  • “Do You Feel Me?,” (reprint) Chorus: A Literary Mixtape, ed. Saul Williams

2010

  • “Attraction,” “Church of Abraham,” “FULL,” (reprint) “Ghazal for Emmett Till,”(reprint) Mighty Real: An Anthology of African American Same Gender Loving Writing, ed. R. BryantSmith and Darius Omar Williams

Selected Essays & Short Prose

Interviews & Published Conversations 

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2011

2010


Selected Service

Black Art Futures Fund

  • Executive Board Member (2017-Present)

Harlem Children's Zone

  • Academy for Leadership and Training, Director, Fall 2016-Summer 2017
  • Writing and Curriculum Corps, Director, Fall 2014-Fall 2016
  • Writing Corps Curriculum Coordinator and Teaching Specialists, Fall 2013-Fall 2014

St Louise Poetry Center

  • "Observable Reading Series," Event Co-curator, Fall 2012 - Spring 2013

Atlantic Center for the Arts

  • “Reading Obsession,” Workshop Instructor, Summers 2011 &2012

Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc.

  • Fiction and Nonfiction Manuscript Reader, Spring 2010


Awards, Fellowships and Honors


  • 2018
    • Whiting Fellowship 
    • Saint Paul de Vence James Baldwin Writer in Residence, Finalist

    2017
    • Lannan Literary Fellowship 
    • Fellowship in Creative Writing, Center for African American Poetry and Poetics, University of Pittsburgh
    • Read My World Literary Festival (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), Invitation
    • Kate Tufts Discovery Award, Finalist 

    2016
    • Levis Reading Prize
    • Breadloaf Bakeless Fellowship
    • Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry, Finalist
    • Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry
    • Palestine Festival of Literature (Jerusalem, Palestine), Invitation

    2015
    • Julie Suk Award, Jacar Press
    • Poets & Writers named Boy with Thorn one of "Top Ten Debut Poetry Books of 2015.
    • Buzzfeed named Boy with Thorn one of "Top 16 Best Poetry Books” of 2015.
    • Buzzfeed named Boy with Thorn named one of "24 Best Literary Debuts” of 2015.
    • Literary Hub named Boy with Thorn one of the best poetry collections of 2015.
    • The Poetry Foundation named Boy with Thorn a Staff Book Pick by
    • Split This Rock named Boy with Thorn a "Books We Love” in 2015. 
    • Minnesota Public Radio named Boy with Thorn a "Most Meaningful Read" Pick. 
    • Advocate named Boy with Thorn one of six books to read for LGBT readers.

    2014
    • Cave Canem Poetry Prize
    • Civitella Ranieri Foundation Residency (Umbertide, Italy)

    2013
    • National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship 
    • Chancellor’s Graduate Fellowship, Washington University in St Louis

    2012
    • Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship, Poetry Foundation 
    • The Alonzo Davis Fellowship, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
    • Chancellor’s Graduate Fellowship, Washington University in St Louis

    2011
    • Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference Work-Study (Waiters’) Scholarship
    • Chancellor’s Graduate Fellowship, Washington University in St Louis
    • National Poetry Series, Finalist
    • 'your word' Fellowship, Atlantic Center for the Arts
    • Discovery”/Boston Review Poetry Award, Semi-finalist
    • Stanley and Evelyn Lipkin Prize for Poetry, Sarah Lawrence College
    • Cave Canem Fellowship

    2010
    • Benjamin Saltman Award in Poetry First Book Prize, Honorable Mention, 
    • Puschart Prize Nomination, “Black Iris,” Vinyl
    • Cave Canem Fellowship

    2009
    • Reginald Shepherd Memorial Prize, 1st & 3rd Runner-up,
    • Cave Canem Fellowship
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