# Grace Cavalieri

Grace Cavalieri is an American poet, playwright, and radio host of the Library of Congress program The Poet and the Poem. In 2019, she was appointed the tenth Poet Laureate of Maryland.

## Education

* BS - Education: English and History, The College of New Jersey, Trenton, 1954
* MA - Creative Writing & Education: Goddard University, Plainfield, VT, 1975
* Post-Graduate Studies, Graduate School of English, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 1975–1976
* Graduate Studies in Education, Graduate School of Education, Rollins University, Orlando, FL, 1962–1963

## Literary career

In 1979 she founded The Bunny and the Crocodile Press/Forest Woods Media Productions, Inc., a publishing house and media production company.
Anna Nicole: Poems By Grace Cavalieri written by Grace Cavalieri was first published on March 7, 2008.
LIFE UPON THE WICKED STAGE: A Memoir written by Grace Cavalieri was first published on May 1, 2015.
In 2019, she was appointed the tenth Poet Laureate of Maryland.
Cavalieri has published 26 books and chapbooks of poetry, plus fiction. She has written many produced plays, plus texts for two produced operas. She co-founded the Washington Writers Publishing House with John McNally in 1976 and served on its editorial board from 1976 to 1982. In addition, in 1979 she founded The Bunny and the Crocodile Press/Forest Woods Media Productions, Inc., a publishing house and media production company. Forest Woods Media Productions produces The Poet and the Poem for podcasts and public radio, now celebrating 44 years. As of 2014, she still operates the small press, which is actively publishing. She has lectured and taught throughout the United States at several colleges and universities, and was, for 25 years, visiting poet at St. Mary's College of Maryland. She was resident writer at the Word Works annual retreat in Tuscany, 1996–2003. She was book editor of The Montserrat Review until 2011. She writes a monthly poetry feature entitled “Exemplars” for the Washington Independent Review of Books (2011–2019).

## Radio career

Cavalieri has had a long-term connection with public radio and public radio programming. Cavalieri and a core staff founded the non-commercial radio station WPFW-FM after being awarded a three-year National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Radio Development Grant in 1976. Cavalieri worked for the station as Director of Arts Programming from 1976 to 1978, and as a radio producer from 1976 to 1985. She has produced more than 100 programs in radio drama, and poetry and arts criticism, including Poetry from the City, Expressions, and Writer's Workshop on the Air.
Cavalieri worked as a radio broadcaster at WPFW-FM from 1977 to 1997 and is best known in the Washington literary community for her program The Poet and the Poem. The show aired weekly from 1977 to 1997, and was distributed nationally through the Pacifica Radio station network, which includes KPFA-FM/KPFB-FM Berkeley, California, KPFK-FM North Hollywood, California, KPFT-FM Houston, Texas, and WBAI-FM New York City, New York. Cavalieri stopped airing The Poet and the Poem through WPFW-FM in 1997 and now presents this series to public radio from the Library of Congress via NPR satellite. Approximately ten episodes from the Library of Congress series are produced each season, and podcasts are made available through the Library of Congress. Typically, The Poet and the Poem features poets who live in the Washington, D.C. area and have become a part of the Washington literary community. Cavalieri has been committed to presenting various American cultural traditions on the program and is particularly interested in the black literary community. The recordings of her programs include a significant collection of African-American poets.
In addition, she was an Associate Director of Programming at the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) for five years and subsequently served as program officer of the National Endowment for the Humanities media program from 1982 to 1988.

## Personal life

Cavalieri lives in Annapolis, Maryland. She has four adult daughters, Cynthia Ann; Colleen Patricia; Shelley Anne; Angela Beth; four grandchildren and a great grandchild. Her husband, sculptor Kenneth Flynn, died on January 15, 2013.

## Literary awards

* 2013 George Garrett Award for Community Service to Literature "for her dedication to helping the next generation of writers find their way as artists and literary professionals".
* 2013 Co-winner, 2013 Allen Ginsberg Award for Poetry
* 2015 The Inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award from Washington Independent Review of Books
* 2015 THE MANDATE OF HEAVEN Bordighera Press Paterson Award for Literary Excellence
* 2018 Selected to serve as the next Poet Laureate for the State of Maryland
* 2019 The Annie Award
* The Paterson Literary Review Lifetime Achievement Award for Service to Poetry
* The Columbia Award
* The Pen-Syndicated Fiction Award
* The Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award
* Paterson Poetry Prize for What I Would Do for Love: Poems in the Voice of Mary Wollstonecraft
* The National Endowment for the Arts
* The Corporation for Public Broadcasting Silver Medal
* The American Association of University Women
* The Paterson Award for Literary Excellence for Anna Nicole: Poems
* The Dragonfly Press Award for Outstanding Literary Achievement
* The DC Poet Laureate Special Award in Poetry
* The DC Public Humanities Award
* The West Virginia Women in Arts Award
* 2024 Blue Light Press Publication Award
She has received several state arts and humanities council awards and fellowships. She received the inaugural Columbia Award from the Folger Shakespeare Library Poetry Committee for "significant contribution to poetry."