Ama Codjoe
Poet, dancer, and activist Ama Codjoe was raised in Youngstown, Ohio, with connections to family in Accra, Ghana, and Memphis, Tennessee. Her notable works include Blood of the Air (Northwestern University Press, 2020) and Bluest Nude (Milkweed Editions, 2022). Blood of the Air won the Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize, while Bluest Nude was the recipient of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and a finalist for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Poetry, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and the Paterson Poetry Prize. Codjoe’s other accolades include the 2023 Whiting Award in Poetry, an Arts and Letters Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, as well as fellowships and support from Cave Canem, Yaddo, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council/New York Foundation of the Arts, and the Bronx Council on the Arts, among others.
Codjoe directed the DreamYard Arts Center in the Bronx, New York, working as an arts educator for young students and leading professional development workshops for educators. She was selected as the 2023 Poet-in-Residence at the Guggenheim Museum. Codjoe’s poetry has appeared in publications such as the New York Review of Books, New Republic, and Best American Poetry. She currently lives in New York, New York.