Shara McCallum

From Jamaica, and born to a Jamaican father and Venezuelan mother, Shara McCallum has published six books in the US & UK, including most recently, No Ruined Stone (2021). An anthology of her poems, translated into Spanish, La historia es un cuarto, was also published in 2021 in Mexico. McCallum's poetry and nonfiction have appeared widely in the US, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Europe. In addition to Spanish, her poems have been translated into Italian, French, Romanian, Turkish, and Dutch and have been set to music by composers Marta Gentilucci and Gity Razaz. Recognition for McCallum's work includes a Silver Musgrave Medal, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Poetry, a Witter Bynner Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship, the Oran Robert Perry Burke Award for Nonfiction, among other prizes and awards. She teaches at Penn State University, where she is an Edwin Erle Sparks Professor, and in the Pacific University Low-Residency MFA Program. McCallum was appointed the 2021-22 Penn State Laureate.