Tony Medina
Tony
Medina is the author of twelve books for adults and children, including
Committed to Breathing and Follow-up Letters to Santa From Kids Who Never Got a
Response. Named by Writer’s Digest as one of ten poets to watch in the new
millennium, Medina’s poetry, fiction and essays appear in over thirty
anthologies and two CD compilations. His children’s books, DeShawn Days and Love
to Langston have garnered several awards, including the Parent's Guide
Children's Media Award (2001), the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People
(2002), and the Rhode Island Children's Book Award (2003). Among his three
anthologies, In Defense of Mumia won The American Booksellers Association's
Firecracker Alternative Book Award and Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam was
named a Best Book of 2002 by The Washington Post’s Book World. His work has
recently been published in African American Literature (Penguin
Academics/Pearson Longman) and he is featured in The Encyclopedia of Hip Hop
Literature and in the documentary Furious Flower II: Regenerating the Black
Poetic Tradition: Roots & First Fruits/Cross-Pollination in the
Diaspora/Blooming in the Whirlwind. He is Assistant Professor of Creative
Writing at Howard University.