Born in Ghana and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, Kwame Dawes is the Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner and a Chancellor's Professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He received a BA from the University of the West Indies at Mona and a PhD from the University of New Brunswick. His many collections include Wisteria: Twilight Songs from the Swamp Country (Red Hen Press, 2006) and Sturge Town (W.W. Norton, 2024). He wrote the study Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius (2002) and founded the Calabash International Literary Festival in Jamaica. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, and the Musgrave Silver Medal from the Institute of Jamaica.
