![]() I had the opportunity to participate in its great MFA program. I was very intentional about cultivating a doctoral experience that wasn’t just focused on academic research and teaching, so I opened myself up to new opportunities. I attended classes, and I had time to rededicate myself to writing while studying for my doctoral program at the same time. When I went to grad school at the University of Michigan, my first year I obtained a Cave Canem fellowship. I knew when I was applying to Emory that I wanted to get my PhD in something because I wanted to be a teacher, a professor. I always a very ambitious child, always making plans. However, I would go on to major English at Emory, spending 4–5 years studying literature and not doing much writing. In college I was going to major in creative writing, since I didn’t initially want to get a bachelor’s degree in English, because I thought that I read and wrote so much growing up and needed to try something new. In high school, I learned about Cave Canem and when I was 19, I submitted a book for the Cave prize. First, I tried to write fiction, then I started writing poetry and that just stuck. A lot of people grow up singing in church, I started writing plays in church-plays that weren’t great. I was always a writer I grew up writing short plays. How did you become interested in poetry and what led you to pursue your PhD in English? He lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he is the programs and communications manager for the Cave Canem Foundation, a home for Black poetry. Tariq completed a playwriting apprenticeship at Horizon Theatre Company in Atlanta, Georgia, and is a 2020–2021 playwright resident with the Liberation Theatre Company in Harlem, New York. He is the author of Heed the Hollow (Graywolf Press, 2019), winner of the 2018 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. In 2016, Tariq was a fellow of the SSRC’s Dissertation Proposal Development Program. He is a graduate of Emory University, and holds a PhD in English from the University of Michigan. Reflecting on his learning experience, in classrooms, the archive, and life, Tariq enlightens us to the truths represented in stanzas and the stage, beyond simply data. Yet, he also touches on the exploration of sexuality and queerness through his work. ![]() He explains how he combines his academic and creative pursuits in his craft, delving into the role interdisciplinarity plays in better understanding and illustrating the trauma of Black history and the Black experience, particularly in the American South. Following the publication of his debut book of poems, Heed the Hollow, Malcolm Tariq discussed with the SSRC the varied and interconnected themes found in his poetry, as well as his academic work. ![]()
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