Mullen is the author of six poetry books, including Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002), and has been nominated for a National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry. Her poems have been translated into Spanish, French, Polish, Bulgarian, and Swedish. Her work is included in the Norton Anthology of African American Literature and has appeared in major literary magazines.
Mullen has received many honors, including a Gertrude Stein Award in Innovative American Poetry, a Rockefeller Fellowship from the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Women's Studies at the University of Rochester, and a 2005 fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
Born in Alabama, Mullen grew up in Fort Worth, Texas. She graduated with honors from the University of Texas and earned her PhD from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Mullen taught at Cornell University before moving to Los Angeles, where she teaches African American literature, American poetry, and creative writing at UCLA.
Mullen's visit to Caltech is sponsored by Words Matter, a program that offers Caltech students frequent opportunities for close contact with renowned writers. Words Matter is funded by the President's Office and guided by a committee of students, faculty, and administrators. In addition to hosting writers in residence, the program also presents an annual science-writing symposium and awards modest grants to support literary activities on campus. Words Matter is intended to cultivate students' interest in writing in its varied forms and to foster an appreciation of the many ways in which words do, indeed, matter. ###
Contact: Portia Wood (626) 395-3227 PMW@caltech.edu
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Written by Deborah Williams-Hedges