January 27th, 2012
Poet Naomi Long Madgett won the $50,000 2012 Kresge Eminent Artist Award funded by The Kresge Foundation. The award is given annually to an exceptional artist who has made a longstanding contribution to metropolitan Detroit in the literary, performing and visual arts. Kresge’s press release states that the award “acknowledges Madgett’s decades of commitment to originating, illuminating, and preserving poetry by African-Americans, and promoting the study and appreciation of African-American literature in schools and universities. A professor emeritus of English at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Mich., Madgett is the author of 10 books of poetry, a pair of textbooks, and the 2006 memoir, “Pilgrim Journey.” She also has edited two anthologies.”
