Tina Cane

Tina Cane
OccupationPoet Laureate of Rhode Island, poet, writing educator, writer
Alma materUniversity of Vermont, Middlebury College
Website
tinacane.ink

Tina Cane is an American poet, author, and activist in Rhode Island. She was the Poet Laureate of Rhode Island until March 2024; originally she was appointed in 2016.

Early life

Cane was born in Hell's Kitchen, New York City, New York. She earned a bachelor's degree in art at the University of Vermont, studied at the University of Paris X-Nanterre and the Sorbonne University, and earned a master's degree in French literature from Middlebury College. [1]

Career

After graduating, Cane was active in New York City's Teachers & Writers Collaborative. [2] Cane moved to Rhode Island in 2005. [3] She founded Writers in the Schools in 2010, and remains the organization's Executive Director.

Cane became Poet Laureate in 2016. As Poet Laureate Cane is responsible for coordinating and selecting the youth poet laureate or youth ambassadors for the state of Rhode Island. Cane has a regular column in the Providence Journal. In 2017, Cane launched a statewide Poetry in Motion program where poetry is featured on digital screens in RIPTA buses.[4] Cane also founded the Youth Poetry Ambassadors in 2017.[5][6]

Cane's work features current topics and is often written free form. Her poems have appeared in The Literary Review, Barrow Street, The Cortland Review and Tupelo Quarterly.[1]

Works

  • Body of Work (Veliz Books, 2019)[7]
  • Once More With Feeling, 2017 [8]
  • Dear Elena: Letters for Elena Ferrante (Skillman Avenue Press, 2016)[1]
  • The Fifth Thought, 2008 [8]
  • Are you Nobody Too? (Random House Books, 2024)

Awards and honors

References

  1. ^ a b c "Meet RI's New Poet Laureate, Tina Cane". The Bay. Retrieved 2019-10-22.
  2. ^ EISENSTADT, JILL (November 12, 2000). "Hello Up There". The New York Times: Section 14, Page 1 – via Nexis Uni.
  3. ^ "An Interview with State Poet Laureate Tina Cane". Motif Magazine. 2018-02-28. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  4. ^ "STATE POET LAUREATE CHOOSES POEM BY PAWTUCKET WRITER TO BE DISPLAYED ON DIGITAL BOARDS ON BOARD RHODE ISLAND PUBLIC TRANSIT AUTHORITY BUSES IN JAN.." US Fed News (USA), 2 Jan. 2019. NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current, infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/170BC5B2D09197A8. Accessed 16 Oct. 2019.
  5. ^ Staff, Journal. "R.I. launches youth poetry initiative". providencejournal.com. Retrieved 2019-10-22.
  6. ^ Smith, Michelle R. (September 11, 2017), "Poetry for the masses: Transit poems spread to Rhode Island", The Seattle Times, AP, retrieved 2019-11-08
  7. ^ Grgas, Lisa (April 29, 2019), "A Review of Body of Work by Tina Cane", The Literary Review, retrieved 2019-10-22
  8. ^ a b c Poets, Academy of American. "About Tina Cane | Academy of American Poets". poets.org. Retrieved 2019-10-16.