Carolyn Forché: Poet, Author, Educator
CAROLYN FORCHÉ is a celebrated American poet, editor, professor, memoirist, essayist, translator, and human rights advocate. She has produced poetry since her early 20s and has won several awards for her work. Among these accolades are the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Lannan Foundation Literary Fellowship, and has received three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her first poetry collection, Gathering the Tribes, won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition, which was later published by Yale University Press, and her third collection of poetry, The Angel of History, received the Los Angeles Times book award.
Forché earned her bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing at Michigan State University in 1972, and completed her MFA at Bowling Green State University in 1975. Following her academic career she has taught at her alma mater, Bowling Green State University and Michigan State University, as well as the University of Virginia, Skidmore College, Columbia University, and San Diego State University. She is currently a professor at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1950, she has dedicated her poetry to highlighting the many voices and stories of oppression and what she coins “poetry of witness.” Her work is known for combining the sphere of the political world with the personal space. Joining these two perspectives to shed light on important ecological, political, economical, and personal issues that face the many communities she’s been a witness to, and translating other poets’ testimonials to these events.
Her initial journey into poetry began in her college years, and she was nominated for a fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Since then, she has published 11 pieces of literature. The most recent addition is a memoir titled What You Have Heard is True, that debuted in March 2019.
The videos below are organized by Success Factor and run between 30 seconds and 4 minutes. Click on any video. You must be connected to the Internet to view the videos.
INSIGHT & INSPIRATION: 0:52 sec.
SERENDIPITY: 0:33 sec.
EXPOSURE TO BROAD INFLUENCES: 4:09 min.
SEIZES OPPORTUNITIES: 2:45 min.
OVERCOMES CHALLENGES TO SUCCEED: 0:40 sec.
INSIGHT & INSPIRATION: 1:38 min.
COMMUNITY VALUES: 2:13 min.
PERSEVERANCE FURTHERS: 4:03 min.