Nicole Sealey
{{Short description|American poet (born 1979)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Nicole Sealey
| image =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1979}}
| birth_place = St. Thomas, Virgin Islands
| death_date =
| death_place =
| death_cause =
| education = University of South Florida (MLA in Africana studies)
New York University (MFA in creative writing)
| occupation = Poet
| notable_works = The Animal After Whom Other Animals are Named
"Pages 22–29, an excerpt from The Ferguson Report: An Erasure"
| awards = 2021 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem
| years_active =
| spouse =
| children =
| website =
}}
Nicole Sealey (born 1979){{cite web|url=https://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/forward-prizes-for-poetry-2/nicole-sealey/|title=Nicole Sealey {{!}} Forward Prizes Alumni|website=Forward Arts Foundation|access-date=October 25, 2021}} is an American poet who was born in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, and raised in Apopka, Florida, US.{{cite web|url=https://poets.org/poet/nicole-sealey|title=Nicole Sealey|website=Poets.org|access-date=October 25, 2021}} She is the former executive director of Cave Canem Foundation.{{cite web|url=https://cavecanempoets.org/nicole-sealey-appointed-cave-canem-foundation-executive-director/|title=Nicole Sealey Appointed Cave Canem Foundation Executive Director|publisher=Cave Canem Foundation|access-date=October 25, 2021}} She won the 2015 Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize for The Animal After Whom Other Animals Are Named, and her collection Ordinary Beast was a finalist for the 2018 PEN Open Book Award.{{cite web|url=https://theadroitjournal.org/2018/08/30/a-conversation-with-nicole-sealey/|title=Poetry is hope: A Conversation with Nicole Sealey|website=The Adroit Journal|first=Katie|last=Willingham|date=August 30, 2018|access-date=October 25, 2021}} Her poem "Pages 22–29, an excerpt from The Ferguson Report: An Erasure" (Poetry London) won a Forward Prize for Poetry in October 2021.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/kennard-femi-and-sealey-win-forward-prizes-poetry-1285717|title=Kennard, Femi and Sealey win Forward Prizes for Poetry|magazine=The Bookseller|first=Sian|last=Bayley|date=25 October 2021|access-date=25 October 2021}} Sealey lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Background
Born in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, Sealey was raised in Apopka, Florida, and received an MLA in Africana studies from the University of South Florida.{{cite web|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/nicole-sealey|title=Nicole Sealey|website=Poetry Foundation|access-date=November 25, 2022}} After participating from 2005 to 2010 in Cave Canem Foundation workshops led by poets such as Marilyn Nelson, Willie Perdomo and Patricia Smith,{{cite web|url=https://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/forward-prizes-for-poetry-2/forward-prizes-in-conversation-with-nicole-sealey/|title=Nicole Sealey In conversation with Forward Arts Foundation|website=Forward Arts Foundation|access-date=October 25, 2021}} Sealey decided at the age of 32 to commit to a career as a poet, going on to earn an MFA degree in creative writing at New York University.{{cite web|url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/02/22/every-poem-love-poem-something-interview-nicole-sealey/|title=Every Poem Is a Love Poem to Something: An Interview with Nicole Sealey|first=Lauren|last=Kane|work=The Paris Review|date=February 22, 2018|access-date=October 25, 2021}} Her work has appeared in The Best American Poetry 2018 and 2021, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and other publications.{{cite web|url=https://www.wwcmfa.org/nicole-sealey/|title=Nicole Sealey|website=The MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College|date=June 2021 |access-date=October 25, 2021}}
She has received fellowships and awards including from CantoMundo, the Cave Canem Foundation, the American Academy in Rome, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Elizabeth George Foundation. In 2019, she was named a 2019–2020 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University. From 2017 to 2019 she was the Executive Director at the Cave Canem Foundation, and was the curator for a special series of Poem-a-Day (August 31–September 11, 2020).
Sealey began making erasures from the 2015 United States Department of Justice report{{cite web |title=Department of Justice Report Regarding the Criminal Investigation Into the Shooting Death of Michael Brown by Ferguson, Missouri Police Officer Darren Wilson |date=March 4, 2015 |access-date=October 25, 2021 |website=United States Department of Justice |url=https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/doj_report_on_shooting_of_michael_brown_1.pdf }} detailing bias policing and court practices in Ferguson, Missouri, three years after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by police, and in October 2021, her "Pages 22–29, an excerpt from The Ferguson Report: An Erasure" (published in Poetry London){{cite magazine|url=https://poetrylondon.co.uk/pages-22-29/|title=Pages 22–29, an excerpt from The Ferguson Report: An Erasure|first=Nicole|last=Sealey|magazine=Poetry London|date=Spring 2021|issue=98| access-date=October 25, 2021}} won the 2021 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem.{{cite web|url=https://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/forward-prizes-for-poetry-2/|title=Forward Prizes for Poetry Winners Announced|website=Forward Arts Foundation|access-date=October 25, 2021}} The judges of the prize referred to Sealey's use of the report's "stifling obfuscations" to create "new moments of lyrical beauty and contemplation", and called her work "a poem of resonant cultural and social value".{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/24/luke-kennard-wins-forward-poetry-prize-for-anarchic-response-to-shakespeare-notes-on-the-sonnets|title=Luke Kennard wins Forward poetry prize for 'anarchic' response to Shakespeare|first=Alison|last=Flood|newspaper=The Guardian|date=October 24, 2021}}
Bibliography
- The Animal After Whom Other Animals are Named: Poems (Northwestern University Press, 2016, {{ISBN|9780810133129}})
- Ordinary Beast: Poems (Ecco Press, 2017, {{ISBN|978-0062688811}})
- The Ferguson Report: An Erasure (Knopf, 2023-08-15, {{ISBN|978-0593535998}})
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sealey, Nicole}}
Category:21st-century African-American women writers
Category:21st-century African-American writers
Category:21st-century American women writers
Category:African-American poets