Featured in The Offing
“Any muscle can be trained to resist.”
—Excerpt from “I Haven’t Mastered the Mirror”
Ajanaé Dawkins is an interdisciplinary poet, performance artist, and theologian.
She writes about her matrilineage to explore the politics of faith, grief, the intimacy of relationship, and sensuality.
She has work published or forthcoming or in The Rumpus, Prairie Schooner, the Indiana Review, Frontier Poetry, The BreakBeat Poets Black Girl Magic Anthology and more. Her work has been featured on For Harriet, Def Jam, and Button Poetry.
Ajanaé is the winner of the Tinderbox Poetry Journal’s Editors Prize, a finalist for the Cave Canem Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady Chapbook Prize, and a finalist for the Brett Elizabeth Jenkins poetry prize. She was the Taft Museum’s 2022 Duncanson Artist in Residence and is a fellow of Torch Literary Arts, The Watering Hole, and Pink Door. She is currently Ohio State University’s UAS, Community Artist-in-Residence.
She has a Bachelors in English from The University of Wisconsin-Madison, an M.F.A. in poetry from Randolph College and a Masters of Theology from Methodist Theological School in Ohio.
Ajanaé is currently a co-host of the VS Podcast with the Poetry Foundation and the Theology Editor for the EcoTheo Review. You can find her in the middle of the dance floor, at the skate rink, the local winery, library, karaoke night, or in her kitchen cooking something slow.
(Photo credits: Mathias Jackson)
Press
2024
Matter News | Poet Ajanae Dawkins begins to Narrow Her Focus
2023
The Ohio State University | Poet Ajanaé Dawkins Selected as 2024 Urban Arts Space Community Artist-in-Residence
Black Coffee and Theology | “Where are you finding God? with Ajanaé Dawkins." (Podcast Guest)
The Poetry Question | “S6EP13: AJANAÉ DAWKINS.” (Podcast Guest)
Reckon | “What about your friends?: How queer friendships fulfill Black women.” (February 13, 2023)
2022
Cincy People. “4 More: Ajanae Dawkins.” (December 20, 2022)
The Voice of BLACK Cincinnati. “Ajanae Dawkins, is the New Duncanson Artist-in-Residence.” (March 28, 2022)
Madison 365. “UW Alumna, Poet Ajanae Dawkins earns Prestigious Residency at Taft Museum of Art.” (April 18, 2022)
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at University of Wisconsin Madison. “First Wave alumna, writer, performer Ajanae Dawkins to lead public programs, teach workshops, and visit schools across greater Cincinnati.” (April 19, 2022)
The Poetry Foundation. “VS Announces New Cohosts: Ajanae Dawkins & Brittany Rogers.” (March 15, 2022)
Randolph College. “M.F.A. Students Named New Hosts of Poetry Foundation Podcast.” (April 11, 2022)
Cincinatti Business Courier’s The Business Journals. “Taft Museum names Ajanae Dawkins as 2022 Duncanson Artist-in-Residence.” (Jan 25, 2022)
Movers & Makers, Cincinatti. “Taft Museum of Arts Selects Dawkins as 2022 Duncanson Artist-in-Residence.” (January 27, 2022)
The Cincinnati Herald. “Taft Museum hosts Duncanson Artist-in-Residence Ajanae Dawkins– Writer and Performance Artist.” (April 8, 2022)
She Will Not Fall | “Let’s Talk Liberation: Ajanaé Dawkins.” (Podcast Guest)
2020
Contemporaries, The Podcast | “Season 2/Ep. 3/Ajanaé Dawkins.” (Podcast Guest)
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