Toi Derricotte has published five collections of poetry, most recently, The Undertaker’s Daughter (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011). An earlier collection of poems, Tender, won the 1998 Paterson Poetry Prize. Her literary memoir, The Black Notebooks, published by W.W. Norton, won the 1998 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Non-Fiction and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her honors include a PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry, the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, the Distinguished Pioneering of the Arts Award from United Black Artists, the Elizabeth Kray Award from Poets House, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation. She serves on the Academy of American Poets’ Board of Chancellors. Formerly a resident of Maryland, Derricotte currently lives in Pennsylvania and is Professor Emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh.