Jamaican-American poet Claudia Rankine won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry for her book  “Citizen: An American Lyric.” She was also a finalist for in the Award’s criticism category, which made her book the first in the history of the award to receive a double nomination. Rankine was born in Kingston received a BA from Williams College and an MFA from Columbia University. Rankine has published a number of poetry collections and was a finalist for the National Book Award. She is the winner of the PEN Center USA Poetry Award, the Forward poetry prize, the Poets & Writers’ Jackson Poetry Prize and fellowships from the Lannan Foundation and the National Endowment of the Arts. Rankine is the Aerol Arnold Chair in the University of Southern California English Department.

Photo Source: John Lucas