Akua Lezli Hope facts for kids

Akua Lezli Hope is an amazing African-American artist, poet, and writer. She is known for her creative spirit, which she expresses through many different art forms, from writing poems and stories to creating beautiful crocheted items and sculptures.

Early Life and Learning

Akua Lezli Hope grew up in New York City. Her mom was a very talented seamstress and tailor who taught her to crochet when she was very young. Her dad loved science fiction and encouraged her to explore it too.

As a child, Akua was always surrounded by adults who shared stories and songs with her. This made her love literature from an early age. Even before she could read or write, she would tell her mom her own poems, and her mom would write them down.

In high school, Akua was very musical. She learned to play the violin, cello, and bassoon. She also sang in youth choirs.

Akua went to college and studied many different subjects. She earned degrees in psychology from Williams College, marketing from Columbia University, and broadcast journalism from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Creative Career

Akua Lezli Hope is a very versatile artist. Her art includes many things like crocheted clothes and accessories, handmade earrings, and works made by weaving, sculpting, and even working with glass and wire! She has even created and shared over a hundred original crochet patterns for other artists to use.

She helped start important groups like the Black Writers Union and the New Renaissance Writers Guild. She also worked as an Area Coordinator for Amnesty International, which helps protect human rights around the world.

Akua writes a lot of poetry and short stories, especially in the science fiction and fantasy genres. Her work has appeared in many different magazines and books. Some of her poems have been collected into her own poetry books.

In 2021, Akua edited a special collection of poems called NOMBONO: Speculative Poetry by BIPOC Poets. She also edited an issue of an online poetry magazine called Eye to the Telescope that same year.

Personal Journey

In 2005, Akua faced a big challenge when she became ill with a rare condition called transverse myelitis. This condition affected her ability to walk, and she became a paraplegic. Despite this, she continues to create and inspire others with her art and writing.

Awards and Recognition

Akua Lezli Hope has received many awards for her amazing work.

• In 1987 and 2003, she won an Artists Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts.
• In 1990, she received a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
• In 1993, she was given a Ragdale U.S.-Africa Fellowship.

She was also a Poet-in-Residence at Chautauqua Institution in 1997 and an Artist-in-Residence at Women’s Studio Workshop in 2001. In 2001, she also received a Hurston-Wright Writers’ Week Fellowship.

Her poetry collection called Embouchure, Poems on Jazz and Other Musics won the Writer's Digest 1995 poetry book award. Her poem "METIS EMITS" won the 2015 SFPA Poetry Contest. In 2021, her collection Otherwheres won first place in the Chapbook category of the annual Elgin Awards for best speculative poetry.

In 2022, Akua won a grant from the NYSCA for her project, "Afrofuturist Pastoral Speculative Poetry." That same year, the SFPA named her the 2022 Grand Master of Fantastic Poetry.

Her story "The Becoming" was included in the book Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora, which was recognized as a notable book by the New York Times.

Published Works

Poetry Collections

• NOMBONO: An Anthology of Otherwheres Speculative Poetry by BIPOC Creators from Around the World (Sundress Publications, 2021)
• Otherwheres (2020)
• Them Gone (The Word Works, 2018)
• Embouchure, Poems on Jazz and Other Musics (ArtFarm Press, 1995)