{"id":411,"date":"2019-04-22T22:03:39","date_gmt":"2019-04-22T22:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/westernmassqtwriters\/?page_id=411"},"modified":"2019-04-22T22:03:39","modified_gmt":"2019-04-22T22:03:39","slug":"cameron-awkward-rich","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/westernmassqtwriters\/cameron-awkward-rich\/","title":{"rendered":"Cameron Awkward-Rich"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Bio:<\/h1>\n

Cameron A<\/span>wkward-Rich is Black trans poet who received his PhD in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University in 2017. Prior to that, Cam spent his time as a postdoctoral associate in transgender studies at the Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University. He has roots in the Pioneer Valley as an assistant professor of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at the University of Amherst Massachusetts. He is a poetry editor for <\/span>Muzzle Magazine<\/span><\/i>; in addition to<\/span>\u00a0being a poet, Cam is working on a manuscript about the creation of what we consider to be canonical transgender works and the \u201cbad\u201d feelings that can come along with that. <\/span><\/p>\n

In terms of his poetry, Cameron published his first chapbook <\/span>Transit<\/span><\/i> through Button Poetry in 2015. Some of those poems and similar poetics were later featured in his full-length poetry book <\/span>Sympathetic Little Monster<\/span><\/i>, published with Ricochet Ed<\/span>itions in 2016. It\u2019s about reconciling one\u2019s past experiences with notions of girlhood and the narrator\u2019s relationship to his father, with his actualized identity as a young Black man in the present. There are allusions to non self-imposed conflict between the narrator\u2019s identity as a Black person and a trans man within some of this poetry; in a world that expects Black men to be loud and aggressive, Cam\u2019s poetry alludes to how transmasculine Black folks are able to strive<\/span>\u00a0towards a space of existence in which they are comfortable being otherwise. The writer of this bio had the pleasure of meeting Cam once; to paraphrase his words, \u201cTransitioning was a way for me to move more comfortably into quietness, as opposed to taking up more space.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Cameron Awkward-Rich\u2019s poetry is a tender gut-punch. The writer of this short biography recommends it to all who love poetry, but especially trans and questioni<\/span>ng Black people\/folks of color. Fans of Cam\u2019s poetry can look forward to his next collection of poems to be published with Persea Books in 2019, a piece of work called <\/span>Dispatch <\/span><\/i>and winner of the 2018 Lexi Rudnitsky Editor\u2019s Choice Award.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Helpful\u00a0<\/b>Links:<\/b><\/h2>\n

Cameron Awkward-Rich\u2019s website<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

UMASS profile<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

poets.org profile<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

S<\/b>u<\/b>ggested Readings:<\/b><\/h2>\n

Transit<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Sympathetic Little Monster<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Dispatch <\/span><\/i>(forthcoming)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFaggot Poetics\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Child Formerly Known As _____\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cCento Between the Ending and the End\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Awesome Video: \u201cA Prude\u2019s Manifesto\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Bio: Cameron Awkward-Rich is Black trans poet who received his PhD in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University in 2017. Prior to that, Cam spent his time as a postdoctoral associate in transgender studies at the Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University. He has roots in the Pioneer Valley as an … Continue reading Cameron Awkward-Rich<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1228,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-411","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/westernmassqtwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/westernmassqtwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/westernmassqtwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/westernmassqtwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1228"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/westernmassqtwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/westernmassqtwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":419,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/westernmassqtwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/411\/revisions\/419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/westernmassqtwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}