Etheridge Knight

Zachary Perdieu (University of Georgia)

Ed. by Matthew Hofer, University of New Mexico
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.5: African American Writing and Culture of the United States.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Philathia Bolton (University of Akron), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), A Yemisi Jimoh (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University)

Dates

Born 19 Apr 1931
Died 10 Mar 1991
Activity 1968-1991

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Cultural Identities

African American

Activities

Primary

Poet

Resources

Knight's Works

Save to Bookshelf

Upon the publication of his first book of poetry,

Poems from Prison

(1968), Etheridge Knight was championed as a vital and authentic new voice of the Black Arts Movement while still incarcerated in the Indiana State Penitentiary. From this unique beginning, Knight went on to receive a National Endowment of the Arts grant and Guggenheim Fellowship, and his follow-up collection,

Belly Song and Other Poems

(1973), was nominated for both a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. Given his themes and experience with mass incarceration, addiction, and black masculinity, Etheridge Knight remains one of the most influential and yet lesser-known American poets.

Knight, the third of seven children, was born on 19 April 1931 in Corinth, Mississippi to Etheridge Knight Sr. and Belzora Cozart Knight.

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2058 words

Citation: Perdieu, Zachary. "Etheridge Knight". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 February 2021 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=14669, accessed 21 November 2024.]