Splay Anthem

Nathaniel Mackey is an American poet, novelist, critic, and editor born in 1947 in Miami, Florida. He earned a BA from Princeton University and a PhD from Stanford University, and has taught at universities including UC Santa Cruz and Duke University, where he is the Reynolds Price Professor of Creative Writing. His work, influenced by jazz and African traditions, has earned him the National Book Award for Poetry for Splay Anthem (2006), the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize (2014), and the Bollingen Prize (2015).