Claudia Rankine was born in Kingston, Jamaica. She came to the United States to attend Williams College and later Columbia University. She has published five collections of poetry, including Citizen: An American Lyric and Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric. She has written two plays, including Provenance of Beauty: A South Bronx Travelogue. She has edited a number of anthologies and worked on many video collaborations.
Rankine has one several awards. To name a few, she has won the PEN Open Book Award, the PEN Literary Award, the NAACP Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. She was also a finalist for the National Book Award for Citizen. She also won the...