Charif Shanahan is an American poet and translator. His debut poetry collection Into Each Room We Enter without Knowing (Southern Illinois University Press, 2017) was the recipient of the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award, selected by Allison Joseph, and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry and the Publishing Triangle's Thom Gunn Award.[1] He is currently an assistant professor of English and Creative Writing at Northwestern University. His second collection, Trace Evidence: poems (Tin House, 2023), was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry and longlisted for the 2023 National Book Award for Poetry[2], and is a finalist for the 2023 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry,[3] his second Lammie nomination.

Charif Shanahan
Shanahan in 2017
Alma mater
Occupation(s)Poet and translator

Education edit

Shanahan earned an BA in Comparative Literature from Princeton University; an MA in Comparative Literature and Literary Translation from Dartmouth College; and an MFA in Poetry from NYU's Graduate Creative Writing Program, where he studied with Sharon Olds and Yusef Komunyakaa, with whom he had first worked as an undergraduate at Princeton.[4]

Career edit

Shanahan is currently an assistant professor of English and Creative Writing at Northwestern University, where he teaches in the undergraduate and Litowitz MFA+MA programs.[5] Previously, he taught at Stanford University,[6] where he held both a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Poetry and Jones Lectureship in Poetry.[7]

His work has also recently been anthologized in African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song (Library of America, 2020), Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry (Northwestern University Press, 2019), and American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time (Graywolf Press, 2018).[8][9]

As a translator, he works primarily from Italian. His translations of Italian-language poets Gëzim Hajdari and Donata Berra have been published in Circumference,[10] A Public Space, and RHINO Poetry.

Awards and honors edit

Books edit

  • Shanahan, Charif (2017). Into each room we enter without knowing. Carbondale. ISBN 978-0809335770.[22][23][24]
  • Shanahan, Charif (2023). Trace evidence : poems. Portland, Oregon. ISBN 978-1953534668.[25][26]

References edit

  1. ^ Roderick, David (20 June 2018). "State Lines: Charif Shanahan's 'Self-Portrait in Black and White'". San Francisco Chronicle.
  2. ^ "2023 National Book Awards Longlist for Poetry". 14 September 2023. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  3. ^ "Announcing the Finalists for the 36th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". them. 27 March 2024. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
  4. ^ "Charif Shanahan". Poetry Foundation. 27 February 2023.
  5. ^ "Charif Shanahan: Department of English". Northwestern University.
  6. ^ "Charif Shanahan | Creative Writing Program". Stanford University.
  7. ^ "Former Stegner Fellows | Creative Writing Program". Stanford University.
  8. ^ "Charif Shanahan". Poetry Foundation. 7 March 2023.
  9. ^ "Free Is Not a Negro Doused in White: Charif Shanahan's INTO EACH ROOM WE ENTER WITHOUT KNOWING | African American Poetry & Poetics | University of Pittsburgh". University of Pittsburgh.
  10. ^ "who will quell our intense desire to solve | Circumference Magazine". Circumference Magazine. 25 July 2012.
  11. ^ "Charif Shanahan". www.whiting.org. Retrieved 2 May 2024.
  12. ^ "Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin". Poets & Writers. 15 February 2023.
  13. ^ "Charif Shanahan earns fellowship from National Endowment for the Arts | Creative Writing Program". Stanford University.
  14. ^ "93 Artists Awarded Summer MacDowell Fellowships". MacDowell.
  15. ^ "Past Residents Captiva". Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.
  16. ^ "Writers in Residence 2018–2022". La Maison Baldwin.
  17. ^ "Lambda Literary Awards Finalists & Winners". Lambda Literary.
  18. ^ "The Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry". The Publishing Triangle.
  19. ^ "Gregory Pardlo Scholarship". The Frost Place. 1 April 2018.
  20. ^ "Prairie Schooner Awards $8,500 to 2015 Writing Prize Winners". Prairie Schooner.
  21. ^ "Fellows". Cave Canem.
  22. ^ "What does it mean to be multiracial in America? This poet explores how it's complicated". PBS NewsHour. 7 August 2017.
  23. ^ March, Thomas (4 December 2017). "Appreciations: Charif Shanahan's "Preface"". Lambda Literary.
  24. ^ Eilbert, Natalie (24 August 2017). "Tell Me I Belong Here: On Charif Shanahan's "Into Each Room We Enter without Knowing"". Los Angeles Review of Books.
  25. ^ "Trace Evidence by Charif Shanahan". Publishers Weekly.
  26. ^ "Back Draft: Charif Shanahan". Guernica Magazine. 13 February 2023.