Airea D. Matthews facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Airea D. Matthews
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Matthews at the 2023 Texas Book Festival
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| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan, Ann Arbor |
| Genre | Poetry |
Airea D. Matthews is an American poet. She is a professor who teaches creative writing at Bryn Mawr College. She also helps lead the Creative Writing Program there. In 2022, she was chosen as the Poet Laureate of Philadelphia. This means she was the official poet for the city of Philadelphia for a year.
Her School Days
Airea Matthews went to the University of Pennsylvania. There, she studied economics. Later, she earned two master's degrees from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. One degree was in poetry, and the other was in social policy. Social policy is about how governments and groups help people.
Her Work and Writing
Besides teaching at Bryn Mawr, Matthews also visits Rutgers University. At Rutgers, she is a special professor and scholar. She helped create a summer writing program for poets and thinkers. She also helped start a seminar about race and ideas.
Her poems have appeared in many important collections and magazines. These include Best American Poetry 2015 and American Poet. Her work has also been in The Baffler and Callaloo.
Her Books
Airea Matthews has written two books of poetry:
- Simulacra, published in 2017. ISBN: 9780300227932
- Bread and Circus, published in 2023. ISBN: 9781668011454
Awards and Special Honors
Airea Matthews has received many awards for her writing.
In January 2022, she was named the sixth Poet Laureate of Philadelphia. This was for the 2022–2023 term.
In 2020, she received a special fellowship from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
In 2016, she won the Yale Younger Poet award. This is a very important award for young poets. She also won the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award. Plus, she received a scholarship from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. In 2017, she was a fellow at the James Merrill House.
In 2024, her book Bread and Circus won a PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award.
