About the Author

As a child, I was lucky because I was always sniffling.  Colds; allergies; something or another.  Which meant I got to stay home from school a lot.  Which meant I could read the books that I wanted to read.  Mommy had a wonderful library.  Richard  Wright, Langston Hughes, Paul Laurence Dunbar, John Hershey but she also read trashy books that she kept in the back of her closet. 

We had music growing up, 78RPM’s that evolved into 45RPM’s and, always, the radio.  The radio in my day, Black and white, played everything. I feel so sorry for the kids who only hear one kind of music.  Where do your dreams come from?

My dream was not to publish or to even be a writer:  my dream was to discover something no one else had thought of.  I guess that’s why I’m a poet. We put things together in ways no one else does.

Fisk University in Nashville, among others, was participating in a program titled “Early Entrant.”  You could start college without having to finish high school.  That came in handy when I needed a summer job a couple of years after my enrollment.  I could honestly check the box that asked if was I a high school dropout, which helped me get chosen for that job. People are strange, aren’t they? Off I went.

Quite naturally, there would be adjustments and quite naturally I didn’t adjust well so I got expelled.  A good thing, too, because now I had time to think about what kind of life I wanted. I knew I needed an education because I was talented Not even all that friendly though I knew I was a good thinker and a better dreamer.  I drove back to Nashville to see if I couldn’t do something to make this all right. There, I had a great Dean of Women.  When she pulled my file she laughed for a good ten minutes. Then we talked. Since I was wrong that was the first thing I said.  She helped me be readmitted and I graduated.

Now here is the problem:  I had no money; no patience with stupid jobs; no talent that could be sold.  I knew I needed graduate school but how?  Another great Dean.  I was admitted to the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work.  Of course, I was not going to do well in that but my great Dean enabled me to attend Colombia University for their newly developed Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program. No degree there either but Columbia does owe me.  The requirement was  "in two years you must write a book.”  I wrote a book in a bit less than a year.  I wanted my degree and to go on.  It's still a discussion Columbia and I have though I admit I keep losing.

No one was interested in a Black girl writing what was called “militant” poetry.  I thought of it as good poetry but we all have our own ideas.  Since no one wanted to publish me I formed a company and published myself. Now I had a goal. I wanted to be a writer who dreams or maybe a dreamer who writes but I knew one book does not a writer make. I started on my second book which garnered a lot of attention because I launched it at Birdland-- the jazz club in NYC.

Since then, I was awarded an unprecedented seven NAACP Image Awards which makes me very, very proud. I was nominated for a Grammy; been a finalist for the National Book Award. I am very proud to have authored three New York Times and Los Angeles Times bestsellers, highly unusual for a poet. I am a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech.  I don’t have a lot of friends but I have good ones.  I have a son and a granddaughter. My father, mother, sister and middle aunt are all deceased, literarily making me go from being the baby in the family to being an elder.  I like to cook, travel and dream. Now, I highly recommend old age;  it’s fun. I’m a writer.  I’m happy.

Awards and Honors

• Keys to more than two dozen American cities, including New York, Miami, Los Angeles, and New Orleans
• Delta Sigma Theta Sorority (Honorary Member)
• Seven NAACP Image Awards: for Love Poems; Blues: For All the Changes; Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea; Acolytes; Hip Hop Speaks to Children; 100 Best African American Poems; Bicycles
• Life Membership & Scroll, The National Council of Negro Women
• Named one of Oprah Winfrey’s 25 Living Legends
• Phi Beta Kappa
• State Historical markers in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Lincoln Heights, Ohio
• The Tennessee Governor's Award in the Arts
• Tennessee Governor's Award In the Humanities
• Virginia Governor's Award for the Arts
• Woman of the Year, Ebony Magazine
• Woman of the Year, Ladies Home Journal
• Woman of the Year, Mademoiselle Magazine
• The Rosa Parks Women of Courage Award, first recipient
• American Book Award
• Caldecott Honor Book Award
• Carl Sandburg Literary Award
• Moonbeam Children’s Book Award
• Tennessee Writer's Award, The Nashville Banner
• The Appalachian Medallion Award
• The East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame Award
• The Gwendolyn Brooks Award
• The Gwendolyn Brooks/John O. Killens Award
• The Langston Hughes Award
• ALC Lifetime Achievement Award
• Art Sanctuary’s Lifetime Achievement Award
• Artist-in-Residence. The Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts
• Distinguished Visiting Professor, Johnson & Wales University
• Duncanson Artist in Residence, The Taft Museum
• Poet-In-Residence, Walt Whitman Birthplace Association
• The Cecil H. and Ida Green Honors Chair, Texas Christian University
• The Hill Visiting Professor, University of Minnesota
• Sankofa Freedom Award
• The Legacy Award, National Alumni Council United Negro College Fund
• The Ohio Women's Hall of Fame
• 2000 Council of Ideas, The Gihon Foundation
• A species of bat named in her honor (Micronycteris giovanniae)
• Affrilachian Award
• American Library Association's Black Caucus Award for Non-fiction
• Ann Fralin Award
• Child Magazine Best Children's Book of the Year
• Cincinnati Bi-Centennial Honoree
• Excellence in Leadership Award from Dominion Power
• Finalist, Best Spoken Word Grammy
• John Henry "Pop" Lloyd Humanitarian Award
• Legends and Legacies Award
• Named a HistoryMaker
• National Association of Radio and Television Announcers Award for Best Spoken Word Album
• National Book Award Nomination for Gemini
• National Parenting Publications Gold Award
• Outstanding Woman of Tennessee
• Parents' Choice Award for The Sun Is So Quiet
• Presidential Medal of Honor, Dillard University
• The SHero Award for Lifetime Achievement
• United States Senate Certificate of Commendation
• Woman of the Year, Cincinnati YWCA
• Women of Power Legacy Award