The Cave Canem Poetry Prize is among the most prestigious in America.  Past winners include two poets who went on to become U.S. Poet Laureate.

2018 prize winner Julian Randall is the son of an African American father and a Dominican mother. His breakout poetry collection Refuse is a reflection on this dual identity, set against the backdrop of Obama’s America.

Julian explores the relationship between himself and his father amidst their shared history of grief and inherited Black trauma. Julian invokes mythical figures such as Icarus, Narcissus and the absent Frank Ocean to create contemporary allegories about what it means to be black, biracial, and queer today.

Featured Writers:

Julian Randall is a Living Queer Black poet from Chicago.

He has received fellowships from Callaloo, BOAAT and the Watering Hole and was the 2015 National College Slam (CUPSI) Best Poet. Julian is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and is the curator of Winter Tangerine Review’s Lineage of Mirrors. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in publications such as New York Times Magazine, The Georgia Review, and Sixth Finch and in the anthologies Portrait in Blues, Nepantla and New Poetry from the Midwest. Julian is a candidate for his MFA in Poetry at Ole Miss. His first book, Refuse, is the winner of the 2017 Cave Canem Poetry prize and was published by University of Pittsburgh Press in Fall 2018.

His work focuses on Latinx Identity, Blackness, Multiracial Identity, LGBTQIA, pop culture, politics, and more.

Sherrika Mitchell was born in Jamaica and raised in sunny South Florida. She is a two-time Alum from Florida Atlantic University She fell in love with poetry her freshman year of high school. Sherrika is currently a board member for the Pittsburgh Poetry Collective. Before moving to Pittsburgh, Sherrika worked as a Teaching Artist for the Blu Apple Poetry Network. She is a Slam Poet, a former member of the 2015 and 2016 DADA National Slam Team that ranked 6th and 2nd in the nation. She is an overall lover of the arts.