Cornelius Eady, professor of English and Miller Family Endowed Chair in Literature and Writing, University of Missouri-Columbia
A poet and playwright, Cornelius Eady has published seven books of poetry, including Victims of the Latest Dance Craze, which won the 1985 Lamont Prize from the Academy of American Poets, and Brutal Imagination, a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award in poetry. Running Man, a music-theatre piece Eady coauthored with jazz musician Diedre Murray, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in drama in 1999.
In 2002, Eady’s stage adaptation of Brutal Imagination won the Newsday Oppenheimer Award for the best first play written that year by an American playwright. Eady is also the cofounder and vice president of Cave Canem Foundation, an organization dedicated to the advancement of young African-American poets. He has taught poetry and literature at Sweet Briar College, The College of William and Mary, SUNY Stonybrook, Sarah Lawrence College, New York University, The New School University, the 92St Y, City College, American University, and the University of Notre Dame, where he also directed its Creative Writing Program.
Sponsored by the Renaissance Circle of the First Year of Studies