John Keene

John Keene is an African American writer and translator. He is the author of several poetry collections, including Punks: New and Selected Poems (The Song Cave, 2021), winner of the 2022 Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry, the 2022 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, and the 2022 National Book Award for Poetry; Counternarratives (New Directions, 2015); Seismosis (1913 Press, 2006), with artist Christopher Stackhouse; and Playland (Seven Kitchens Press, 2016).

Keene is Board of Governors Professor of English and Distinguished Professor of English and Africana Studies at Rutgers University–Newark. The recipient of a 2018 Windham-Campbell Prize and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, he lives in Jersey City, New Jersey.