Pomona College’s Claudia Rankine Makes Literary History

Claudia Rankine, the Henry G. Lee Professor of English at Pomona College in Claremont, California, has made literary history. She is the first author to have a work nominated as a finalist in two categories in the 39-year history the of National Book Critics Circle Awards. The winners of the awards will be announced on March 12 in New York City.

Professor Rankine is being honored for her book Citizen: An American Lyric (Graywolf Press, 2014). The book was nominated in both the poetry category and the criticism category. Rankine’s poetry recounts mounting racial aggressions in ongoing encounters in twenty-first-century daily life and in the media. Citizen is her fifth published poetry collection.

Professor Rankine is a native of Jamaica. She is a graduate of Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and holds a master of fine arts degree in poetry from Columbia University.