# Aracelis Girmay

Aracelis Girmay (born December 10, 1977) is a poet, teacher, and editor. Girmay also works with collage and essays, and has collaborated with film and sound artists. She is the author of the poetry collections the black maria (2016), Kingdom Animalia (2011), and Teeth (2007). For her work, she was named a finalist for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. She is the Knight Family Professor of Creative Writing at Stanford University.

## Background

Girmay was born in Santa Ana, California. Her mother, of Puerto Rican, African American, and Mexican descent, is from Chicago. Her father, of Tigrinya people from the highlands in Eritrea, was born in Gondar. Girmay earned her B.A. in Documentary Studies with a minor in what was then called Hispanic Studies with a CISLA Certificate from Connecticut College. She earned a Master of Fine Arts from New York University. At NYU she studied poetry with Elizabeth Alexander, Derek Walcott, Eamon Grennan, Sharon Olds, and Philip Levine. While in the MFA she took an Africana course with the poet Kamau Brathwaite.

## Career

For many years, Girmay taught youth writing workshops in school and community settings. She worked as a teaching artist with DreamYard and the Community~Word Project. She was a visiting writer at Queens College (NY) before joining Hampshire College's faculty in the School for Interdisciplinary Arts. Girmay has taught in many programs, including Drew University's low-residency program, Columbia University's MFA program, Sarah Lawrence's MFA program, and she served as the writer in residence and assistant chairperson at Pratt Institute (Writing Program). Since 2023 she has been teaching at Stanford University.
Girmay's first collection was Teeth (2007), for which she won the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award.
In 2011 Girmay published Kingdom Animalia, winner of the Isabella Gardner Award, chosen by the poet Laure-Anne Bosselaar. Kingdom Animalia was named a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, .
the black maria (2016) was Girmay's third collection. Selecting The Black Maria as a "Pick of the Week" in April 2016, Publishers Weekly described it as "a moving collection of lyrical, image-thick poems that balance on the knife edge separating vulnerability and unapologetic strength." The Boston Globe named it one of the best books of 2016. This book was chosen as the representative text for Girmay's Neustadt International Prize for Literature nomination by juror and poet Mahtem Shiferraw. In 2018 she was awarded the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award, chosen by poet Elizabeth Alexander.
Girmay is a recipient of the Whiting Award and the Metcalf Award. She has received fellowships from the Cave Canem Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, among other organizations. In 2017 she was named a recipient of the June Jordan Fellowship from Columbia University's Center for Justice under the fellowship directorship of poet and scholar Joshua Bennett.
Girmay is on the editorial board of the African Poetry Book Fund and from 2021-2025 served as the editor of BOA Editions' Blessing the Boats Selections. She served as the editor of How to Carry Water: Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton (BOA Editions) and So We Can Know: Writers of Color on Pregnancy, Loss, Abortion, and Birth (Haymarket Books).
Girmay is also the author and collagist of the picture book Changing, Changing. In collaboration with her sister, Ariana Fields, she wrote the picture book What Do You Know? Girmay worked with illustrator, Diana Ejaita, on the picture book Kamau and ZuZu Find a Way.

### Awards

* 2009 winner, Great Lakes College Association New Writers Award
* 2011 finalist, National Book Critics Circle Award, poetry, for Kingdom Animalia
* 2011 finalist, Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, poetry, for Kingdom Animalia
* 2015 Whiting Award for poetry
* 2016 Bess Hokin Prize from Prairie Schooner
* 2018 finalist, the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, nominated by Mahtem Shiferraw
* 2018, the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award, chosen by Elizabeth Alexander
* 2019 Metcalf Award for poetry from the American Academy of Arts and Letters

## Works

* Teeth, Willimantic, CT: Curbstone Press, 2007. ISBN 9781931896368, OCLC 255642172
* Changing, Changing, New York: George Braziller, 2005. ISBN 9780807615539, OCLC 57352696
* Kingdom Animalia, Rochester, NY: Boa Editions, 2011. ISBN 9781934414620, OCLC 830153138
* the black maria, Rochester, NY: BOA Editions Ltd. 2016. ISBN 9781942683025, OCLC 991299177
* What Do You Know? with Ariana Fields, Brooklyn, NY: Enchanted Lion 2021.
* So We Can Know: Writers of Color on Pregnancy, Loss, Abortion, and Birth editor, Chicago, Illinois: Haymarket Books 2023.
* and was a flower chapbook with book artist Valentina Améstica, NY, NY: Center for Book Arts 2023.
* Kamau and ZuZu Find a Way with Diana Ejaita, Brooklyn, NY: Enchanted Lion 2024.