Elizabeth Alexander is a leading American poet whose work has been inspired by a wide range of influence, from history, literature, art and music, dreams and stories to the rich infinity of the African American experience. She is president of the Mellon Foundation, the US’s largest funder in the arts, culture, and humanities. In January 2009 she read the inaugural poem for the swearing-in of President Barack Obama, 'Praise Song for the Day'. Born in Harlem, New York City, she grew up in Washington, DC. She is also an essayist, playwright, teacher and scholar of African-American literature and culture, and has given readings and lectures on African-American literature and culture in many countries.
Her most recent book, The Trayvon Generation (2022), is a galvanising meditation on the power of art and culture to illuminate America’s unresolved problem with race and the challenges facing young Black America. Among the fifteen books she has written or co-authored, her poetry collection American Sublime was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 2006, and her memoir, The Light of the World, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2015. Her other books include Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems 1990–2010 (2010), Power and Possibility: Essays, Reviews, Interviews (2007) and The Black Interior: Essays (2004). Her first UK publication, American Blue: Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2006), drew on her first four collections: The Venus Hottentot (1990), Body of Life (1996), Antebellum Dream Book (2001) and American Sublime (2005).
Elizabeth Alexander has held distinguished professorships at Smith College, Columbia University, and Yale University, where she taught for fifteen years and chaired the African American Studies Department. She has been awarded the Jackson Poetry Prize, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, the George Kent Award, and the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.
