Reginald Dwayne Betts
Reginald Dwayne Betts | |
|---|---|
 Reginald Betts at Split this rock, 2016 | |
| Born | February 1, 1980 |
| Occupation | poet, teacher |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Prince George's Community College; University of Maryland; Warren Wilson College. Yale University |
Reginald Dwayne Betts (born February 1, 1980) is an American poet, memoirist, and teacher. He is author of A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison (Penguin/Avery, 2009), Shahid Reads His Own Palm (Alice James Books, 2010), winner of the 2010 Beatrice Hawley Award, and Bastards of the Reagan Era (Stahlecker Selections, 2015). He was a 2010 Soros Justice Fellow.[1]
Arrest
According to The Washington Post, Betts was an exceptional student who veered off-course in high school, landing himself in serious legal trouble.[tone] He was an honors student and class treasurer at Suitland High School in the Washington, D.C. suburb of District Heights, Maryland. At the age of sixteen, he and a friend carjacked a man who had fallen asleep in his car at the Springfield Mall.[2] Betts was charged as an adult and spent more than eight years in prison, where he completed high school and began reading and writing poetry.
Speaking at the NGC Bocas Lit Fest in 2016, he said: "I was in solitary confinement.... You could call out for a book and someone would slide one to you. Frequently, you would not know who gave it to you. Somebody slid The Black Poets edited by Dudley Randall. In that book I read Robert Hayden for the first time, Sonia Sanchez, Lucille Clifton. I saw the poet as not just utilitarian but as serving art. In a poem you can give somebody a whole world. Before that, I had thought of being a writer, writing mostly essays and maybe, one day, a novel. But at that moment I decided to become a poet."[3] In prison, he was renamed Shahid, meaning "witness".[3]
After prison
After his release from prison, he found a job working at Karibu Books in Bowie, Maryland, where he was eventually promoted to store manager and founded a book club for African American boys, while attending Prince George's Community College in Largo, Maryland.[4] He is currently attending Yale Law School.[5]
Since then, his honors include a Bread Loaf Writers' Conference scholarship, the Holden Fellowship to attend the M.F.A. program at Warren Wilson College and a Fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard.[6] He is a Cave Canem Workshop fellow, and was a full scholarship student at the University of Maryland, where he earned his B.A. He currently teaches poetry with the DC Creative Writing Workshop at Hart Middle School.[7][8] According to USA Today, he is also the national spokesman for the Campaign for Youth Justice, and speaks out for juvenile-justice reform. He also visits detention centers and inner-city schools, and talks to at-risk young people.[9]
In 2012, President Barack Obama announced that Betts had been named a member of the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.[10]
His poems have been published in literary journals and magazines including Ploughshares,[11] Crab Orchard Review and Poet Lore.[7]
As of 2013, Betts teaches an Intro to Nonfiction course at Emerson College. He is currently a student at Yale Law School.
Bibliography
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Poetry
Collections
- Betts, Reginald Dwayne (2010). Near Burn and Burden: a collection of poems. Warren Wilson College.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|authormask=(help) - Betts, Reginald Dwayne (2010). Shahid Reads His Own Palm. Alice James Books. ISBN 9781882295814.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|authormask=ignored (|author-mask=suggested) (help) - Betts, Reginald Dwayne (2015). Bastards of the Reagan Era. Stahlecker Selections. ISBN 9781935536659.
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List of selected poems
| Title | Year | First published | Reprinted/collected |
|---|---|---|---|
| What we know of horses | 2011 | Betts, Reginald Dwayne (2011). "What we know of horses" (PDF). River Styx. 85: 37–38. Retrieved 2015-04-20. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |authormask= (help)
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Henderson, Bill, ed. (2013). The Pushcart Prize XXXVII: Best of the small presses 2013. Pushcart Press. pp. 471–473. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |authormask= (help)
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| A conversation | 2006 | Betts, Reginald Dwayne (Spring 2006). "A Conversation". Beltway Poetry Quarterly. 7 (2). Retrieved 2015-04-20. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |authormask= (help)
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| let me tell you bout the night i died | 2008 | Betts, Reginald Dwayne (2008). "let me tell you bout the night i died". The Drunken Boat. 8 (III–IV). Retrieved 2015-04-20. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |authormask= (help)
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| Misunderstood | 2008 | Betts, Reginald Dwayne (2008). "Misunderstood". The Drunken Boat. 8 (III–IV). Retrieved 2015-04-20. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |authormask= (help)
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| Soldier's song | 2008 | Betts, Reginald Dwayne (2008). "Soldier's song". The Drunken Boat. 8 (III–IV). Retrieved 2015-04-20. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |authormask= (help)
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Non-fiction
- A Question of Freedom: A memoir of learning, survival, and coming of age in prison. Penguin. 2010. ISBN 9781101133361.
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References
- ^ "The Exchange: R. Dwayne Betts on Prison, Poetry, and Justice". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
- ^ Blake, Meredith (November 30, 2010). "The Exchange: R. Dwayne Betts on prison, poetry, and justice". The New Yorker. Retrieved December 8, 2015.
- ^ a b Andre Bagoo, "From prison to poetry", Trinidad and Tobago Newsday, May 30, 2016.
- ^ Lonnae O'Neal Parker, "From Inmate to Mentor, Through Power of Books", The Washington Post, October 2, 2006.
- ^ NPR Interview 12/8/15 with Terry Gross, Fresh Air
- ^ Radcliffe. "Reginald Dwayne Betts".
- ^ a b Author Page > Reginald Dwayne Betts, Alice James Books.
- ^ "New Voices: Reginald Betts", Ploughshares Blog, December 11, 2008.
- ^ Craig Wilson, "R. Dwayne Betts: A Mind Unconfined by Jail", USA Today, August 12, 2009.
- ^ White House. "President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts". Retrieved March 15, 2014.
- ^ Reginald Dwayne Betts at Ploughshares.
- ^ Michiko Kakutani (October 12, 2015). "Review: 'Bastards of the Reagan Era,' a Book of Poetry". The New York Times.
Mr. Betts captures the stark brutality of prison life with chilling, matter-of-fact descriptions, and he evokes the hopelessness that accompanies many prisoners' belief that all narratives end "with cuffs around all wrists, again."
External links
| External media | |
|---|---|
| Audio | |
 Audio Interview: Ex-Convict Writes About 'A Question of Freedom" Scott Simon, NPR | |
| "Audio Interview: "Coming of Age in Prison- Reginald Dwayne Betts", WAMU The Kojo Nnmadi Show | |
| In 'Bastards Of The Reagan Era' A Poet Says His Generation Was 'Just Lost', Fresh Air, December 8, 2015 | |
| Video | |
 Furious Flower presents R. Dwayne Betts, James Madison University, September 17, 2015 | |
| "R. Dwayne Betts: A Mind Unconfined by Jail", Craig Wilson, USA Today | |
| Video- Reading & Interview- Reginald Dwayne Betts, USA Today |
- Author's website this URL returns HTTP error 404 as of June 10, 2014
- Author Page > Reginald Dwayne Betts > Alice James Books
- Lonnae O'Neal Parker, "From Inmate to Mentor, Through Power of Books", The Washington Post, October 2, 2006.
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