Quraysh Ali Lansana

Co-Author of "Opal's Greenwood Oasis"

January 15, 2021

Quraysh Ali Lansana is author of 20 books in poetry, nonfiction and children’s literature. Lansana is currently a Tulsa Artist Fellow, Writer in Residence, Lecturer and Acting Director of the Center for Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation at Oklahoma State University-Tulsa. Lansana is Creator and Executive Producer of "KOSU/NPR’s Focus: Black Oklahoma" monthly radio program. A former faculty member of both the Writing Program of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Drama Division of The Juilliard School, Lansana served as Director of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing at Chicago State University from 2002-2012 and was Associate Professor of English/Creative Writing there until 2014. "Our Difficult Sunlight: A Guide to Poetry, Literacy & Social Justice in Classroom & Community," published in March 2011 by Teachers & Writers Collaborative, was a 2012 NAACP Image Award nominee. His most recent books include "The Skin of Dreams: New and Collected Poems," 1995-2018, "The Whiskey of Our Discontent: Gwendolyn Brooks as Conscience & Change Agent" (Haymarket Books, 2017) and "The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip Hop" (Haymarket Books, 2015). Lansana’s work appears in "Best American Poetry" 2019, and forthcoming titles include "Those Who Stayed: Life in 1921 Tulsa After the Massacre and Opal’s Greenwood Oasis." He is a founding member of Tri-City Collective.

URL: https://library.okstate.edu/news/celebratingbooks/2021-honorees/quraysh-ali-lansana

Last Updated: 4 March 2021