Kamilah Aisha Moon was born in Nashville, Tennessee. She earned a BA from Paine College and an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. Her debut collection, She Has a Name (Four Way Books, 2013), was a finalist for both the Audre Lorde and Lambda Literary Awards. Starshine & Clay (Four Way Books, 2017), her subsequent book, was a CLMP Firecracker Award finalist and was featured on NPR's All Things Considered as a collection that captures America in poetry.
A 2015 New American Poet, Moon’s honors included a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from MacDowell, Hedgebrook, Cave Canem, the Fine Arts Work Center, the Prague Summer Writing Institute, and the Vermont Studio Center. Her work was published widely in magazines and periodicals such as The New York Times, Harvard Review, and American Poetry Review, as well as Poem-A-Day and the Best American Poetry anthology series. Moon taught poetry at Rutgers University, Medgar Evers College, Adelphi University, Drew University, and Agnes Scott College. She passed away in 2021.
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Photo by Tyson Horne.