“Picasso in Africa” by Najee Dorsey
Yona Harvey
LITERARY ARTIST, PITTSBURGH PA
about
Yona Harvey is an American poet and recipient of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award for her first poetry collection, Hemming the Water. Her second poetry collection, You Don’t Have to Go to Mars for Love, is available now from Four Way Books and wherever books are sold. She is also among the first black women to write for Marvel Comics. She won the inaugural Lucille Clifton Legacy Award in poetry from St. Mary’s College of Maryland and the Carol R. Brown Achievement Award from the Heinz Foundation. She is an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh, teaches creative writing workshops, delivers writing-specific speaker topics, and is at work on her first memoir. She currently serves on the editorial board of Poetry Daily.
Yona’s work has been published and anthologized in many publications including Letters to the Future: Black WOMEN / Radical WRITING, A Poet’s Craft: A Comprehensive Guide to Making and Sharing Your Poetry and The Force of What’s Possible: Accessibility and the Avant-Garde. She contributed to Marvel’s World of Wakanda with Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay, followed by a collaboration with Coates on Black Panther & The Crew. Her interests and writings in nonfiction recently led her to teach a workshop for Creative Nonfiction magazine: “Writing Away the Stigma for Young Adults,” designed for teens writing about their mental health experiences.
Yona can be retained as a speaker, reader, or workshop facilitator.
booking requests
publications
You Don’t Have to Go to Mars for Love
A Stahlecker series selection
by Yona Harvey
Four Way Books, coming September 2020
isbn 194558856X, 9781945588563
media
Featured video Walks in Wakanda: Yona in conversation with writer, cultural critic, and Rise of the Black Panther author, Evan Narcisse.
10 Black Poets of Past and Present Who Deserve Unending Recognition for Their Work
Well + Good | July 17, 2020
Artists Offer New Maps of Pittsburgh’s Soul
wesa.fm | June 8, 2020
Fellowship Awardee, George A & Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation
brown.edu | 2020-2021
A Pioneer in the Literary World of ‘Black Panther’
DiverseEducation.com | February 18, 2018
Alumna writes for Black Panther comics
OSU.edu | February 16, 2018
Lives of A Poet
PITT Magazine | Summer 2017
Women Writers of Color: Yona Harvey
therumpus.net | March 2017
writings
“Maher’s willful ignorance as to the value of comics inhibits him from recognizing the emotional struggles and triumphs delivered to us every Comic Book Wednesday. Why should a man whose empire revolves around his limited perspective suddenly see? For everyone else, though, there’s an opportunity to view Black Panther, Storm, Luke Cage, Misty Knight and Manifold in a new light—a light that does not blind but illuminates the depth and complexity of who these characters might be.”
Read MARVEL’S VOICES #1 at your local comic shop!
. . .
I believe Langston Hughes when he writes that “poems, like prayers, possess power,” and I read what Brandi writes as a poem. Brandi’s poem has a title, line breaks, and an affirming catalog of “good things” that ends with the name of a teenaged boy, L.E., who once captured Brandi’s imagination. Maybe because I’m a poet and an older sister wanting peace of mind, I can’t help but read Brandi’s work this way. I want to believe that Brandi’s catalog of good things pulled her back from isolation. And I’m relieved to know that, for one year at least, Brandi found some comfort in writing and recording her thoughts, and that she sought help for her depression and difficulties. What she writes is part poem, part affirmation, part girl talk, and part secret. And, like Brandi, the poem keeps certain information to itself. Who, for instance, was D.J.? The name doesn’t ring the slightest bell.
–from “Blood, Work” in Writing Away the Stigma
. . .
“The Sonnet District,”
But you best believe
there’s a spiritualizing pattern coming into alignment, the dazzling intuition
of my female species systematically undermined for the sake of a male leader.
Of course, I stole my files to burn later.
. . .
“Sonnet for a Tall Flower Born at Dinnertime,”
Southern Flower, I want to quote the bard,
to serenade you, to raise a glass to you.
. . .
“Necessarily.”
She’s got a hundred & two temperature, delivery room nurses said. You’re
gonna live, though—long enough to know you’re going
to go as quickly as you came, gonna make your mother swear by you,
. . .
“Boy in the Forest Between Living & Leaving.”
soon is now son rise up singing one day soon is now son rise up singing one day soon son is now son rise up singing one day soon is today son rise up swinging one day soon is now son rise up swinging one day soon is now son rise is today son rise up swinging
All above poems published in The Spectacle
Reading and Conversation with Crystal Williams
Thursday, March 18th 2021
5p pacific / 7p central / 8p eastern
A Four Way Books Panel
Writing Working, and Wellness in a Time of Calamity
Friday, May 14 2021
1:15 pm pacific / 3:15 pm central / 4:15p eastern
Panelists will talk about how in times of extreme agitationt, what they/we can do to help ourselves, our students, our families, friends, colleagues, and neighbors through the practice of writing, reading, learning, sharing. Panelists: Ricardo Alberto Maldonado, Angela Torres, Yona Harvey, and John Murillo.
Previous Events
Reading and Conversation with Marcel Walker sponsored by Michigan State University
Thursday, February 18, 2021
Books Noted Live: A Reading and Conversation with Yona Harvey and Taylor Johnson (Inheritance, Alice James Books, 2020)
Friday, October 23rd 2020 @ 7pm EDT
Black Futures, Black Pasts
w/ Yona Harvey & Cherene Sharrard (Grimoire, Autumn House Press, 2020)
Friday, October 23rd 2020
Yona Harvey with Ted Mathys and Linda Hogan
From October 16, 2020
Town Hall Seattle
Lyric World: Shin Yu Pai with Yona Harvey
In The Moment podcast
Episode 72 from October 5, 2020
writing workshop topics include:
The Art of Journaling
The Art of Revision
Archives and Autobiography
DIY: Generating Writing Exercises for yourself and others
Ekphrastic Fantastic: Writing with Art and Music
Mental Health Writing
Politics and Prose: Engaging News and Politics
Visual Arts Poetry
Restorative Writing for Mind and Body
Write Yourself into a Comic (young adults)
speaking topics and one-on-one consultations include:
Budgeting on a Shoestring (women and young adults)
African American Poetry
One Vision, Many Vehicles: Storytelling in Poetry, Nonfiction, and Comics
Poetry Manuscript Editing
Protecting Your Writing Practice
Writing and Censorship
Writing Comics (diversity in comics, women in comics)
Writing and Research
Yes, We Can: Women 40 and over Publishing First Books and Beyond
contact
social media
Twitter: @yonaharvey
Instagram: @yonaharveywriter
Facebook: @yonaharveywriter
newsletter sign up
Yona can be retained as a speaker, reader, or workshop facilitator through her contact form. Inquiries on publications, writings, poems and writing comics are appreciated and emails will be answered as her schedule permits.
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