Biography
Simone White is an American poet, mother and scholar whose writing encompasses poetry and criticism. In her latest work, a book and performance entitled or, on being the other woman, she weaves a long poem with an essay and brings post-Marxist materialism into conversation with Black studies. The work, White’s fourth full-length collection, was inspired by questions raised by trap music, a subgenre of hip hop, and considers the dynamics of contemporary Black feminist life. White’s work has been praised for its innovation and “lyric deconstruction of desire, entitlement, blackness, the domestic, language and diction,” as the poet Anna Moschovakis wrote. White’s honours include a 2017 Whiting Award in Poetry and recognition as a New American Poet for the Poetry Society of America in 2013. She is a graduate of Wesleyan University, holds a JD from Harvard Law School, an MFA from the New School, and a PhD in English from CUNY Graduate Center. White is an assistant professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania and lives in Brooklyn.