About Us
2009-2010 Writers
Terry Blackhawk founded InsideOut Literary Arts Project while teaching high school creative writing in Detroit. Blackhawk is author of numerous essays, two chapbooks, and three full-length poetry collections:
Body & Field, (MSU Press, 1999);
Escape Artist (BkMk Press, 2003) which received the John Ciardi Poetry Prize; and
The Dropped Hand (Marick Press, 2007). Her poems have appeared in many anthologies and in journals such as
Marlboro Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Southern Poetry Review, Florida Review, Artful Dodge and on line at Poetry Daily and
Verse Daily. She received the Foley Poetry Prize and several Pushcart nominations including two from Ekphrasis and one from Jim Daniels. Body & Field was a finalist for prizes from New Issues Press and Four Way Books as well as semifinalist for the Paumanok Award. Terry leads workshops on writing about art for the Detroit Institute of Arts and conducts graduate level writing classes for Oakland University, where she received her Ph.D. in Language Arts Education. Her awards include a Michigan Council for the Arts artist-in-residence grant, the Governor's Award for Art Education, and a Detroit Metro Times Progressive Hero Award. She was the 1990 Michigan Creative Writing Teacher of the Year and has been named the 2007 Bookwoman of the Year by the Detroit WNBA (Women’s National BOOK Association).
Ben Alfaro is originally an Ann Arbor native, and now a freshman at Wayne State University in Detroit, studying Urban Planning. He's been a competing poet in the Brave New Voices festival in New York City, San Jose, and Washington DC, respectively. Recently published in two anthologies,
Unsquared, and
Decibals, Ben's writing has been used in classrooms and workshops across the nation from Bates College in Maine to Youth Speaks in San Francisco. Ben is also a part of the Ann Arbor-based spoken word troupe Wordworks, comprised of Michigan college students. In addition to writing, he is also a music enthusiast and a Hip Hop promoter for Michigan emcees, as well as an associate of the Los Angeles label, A-Side Worldwide.
C.M. Archer lives in Detroit, MI and has worked for InsideOut for the last 3yrs. She is a Cave Canem fellow and has work published in the coming journal, Reverie. She is currently traveling and working on new publications.
Anthony Baber is a Saginaw native and recent University of Michigan graduate with a BA in English. Though fiction is his strong suit, Anthony has worked in poetry, journalism, and television writing. He is still trying to discover a particular genre in his writing, but tends to write stories that are family oriented, revolving around one's place in their family and how it affects their place in society and vice versa. Aside from writing, Anthony also plays the bass, dances in a hip-hop dance group, and loves science fiction.
Russell Brakefield is a poet beset by a deep adoration of his home state of Michigan. He received a Bachelor’s degree in English literature from Central Michigan University and is now a first year poet in the University of Michigan’s MFA program. His poems can be seen in various journals and most recently is a chapbook out on Pudding House Press.
RaNeeka J. Claxton is an excited newbie to InsideOut Literary Arts Project. A native Detroiter, Claxton received her BA in English from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, and is currently working on her MFA in Creative Writing through the University of California, Riverside – Palm Desert's Low Residency Program. She has a concentration in fiction with a future goal of becoming a Young Adult novelist and fiction professor. Claxton sees the world as her canvas, and she paints with her pen. She is a journalist by trade – having covered fashion trends, travel destinations and community news in the British Virgin Islands Jersey City, New York City, Palm Springs and South Africa. She will study fiction with writers from around the world through Summer Literary Seminars in Nairobi and Lamu, Kenya this winter.
Terrance Dean is a speaker, educator, Hip-Hop head and author of the best-selling books ,
Reclaim Your Power! A 30-Day Guide to Hope, Healing and Inspiration for Men of Color (Random House/Villard May 2003); and the explosive and provocative Essence Magazine best-selling memoir,
Hiding In Hip Hop - On the Down Low in the Entertainment Industry from Music to Hollywood (Simon & Schuster/Atria Books – May 2008). Dean is a 2005 Vanderbilt University, John Seigenthaler Journalism Fellow and contributing writer to the anthologies, “Souls of My Brothersâ€Â
Created Aug. 22, 2007 Article #1592 :: Last Update: Feb. 1, 2010
