Kwame Dawes is the author of twenty-two books of poetry and numerous books of fiction and criticism. He is Glenna Luschei Editor-in-Chief of Prairie Schooner and George W. Holmes University Professor at the University of Nebraska. He directs the African Poetry Book Fund and is artistic director of the Calabash International Literary Festival. Dawes is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and the editor of American Life in Poetry.