Name A. Jordan | Role Poet | |
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Awards Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, Whiting Awards, Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts, US & Canada Nominations NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work - Poetry Books M‑A‑C‑N‑O‑L‑I‑A, Quantum lyrics, The Cineaste: Poems, The Homesteader |
Cave canem presents poets on craft with nathalie handal and a van jordan
A. Van Jordan (born 1965, Akron, Ohio) is an American poet. He is Collegiate Professor in the Department of English Language & Literature at the University of Michigan and distinguished visiting professor at Ithaca College. He previously served as the first Henry Rutgers Presidential Professor at the Rutgers University-Newark. He is the author of four collections: Rise (2001), M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A (2005), Quantum Lyrics (2007), and The Cineaste (2013). Jordan's awards include a Whiting Writers Award, a Pushcart Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Contents
- Cave canem presents poets on craft with nathalie handal and a van jordan
- Sarah messer talks poetry with a van jordan aaron mccullough and jericho brown
- Early life
- Career
- Awards
- Works
- Poetry
- Essays
- Personal life
- References

Sarah messer talks poetry with a van jordan aaron mccullough and jericho brown
Early life

Jordan graduated from Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio in 1987 with a BA in English Literature. He graduated from Howard University, 1990, with an MA in Organizational Communications. He graduated from Warren Wilson College, 1998, with an MFA, and he also holds an MFA in Film Screenwriting from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, 2016. He lived in Washington, D.C. from 1988 to 2002.
Career

Jordan is the author of four collections. Rise (Tia Chucha Press, 2001) won the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award. M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A (2005), which was listed as one the Best Books of 2005 by The London Times; Quantum Lyrics (2007); and The Cineaste (W.W. Norton & Co., 2013). In 2013 he published a chapbook called The Homesteader.

Jordan taught at Warren Wilson College, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the University of Texas at Austin, where he was tenured as an Associate Professor, and as professor at the University of Michigan. In 2014, he became Rutgers University-Newark's first Henry Rutgers Presidential Professor, before returning to the University of Michigan in 2017. His academic interests include the writing of poetry, the history of poetry in English, and cinematic studies.
His work has appeared in Ploughshares, and Callaloo amongst other publications.
Awards
Works
Poetry
Essays
Personal life
Jordan is married to Shirley Collado, a professor of psychology and president of Ithaca College.