Reginald Dwayne Betts

Reginald Dwayne Betts

Reginald Betts at Split this rock, 2016
Born (1980-02-01)February 1, 1980
Occupation poet, teacher
Nationality American
Ethnicity African 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. 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

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Poetry

Collections

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.  Henderson, Bill, ed. (2013). The Pushcart Prize XXXVII: Best of the small presses 2013. Pushcart Press. pp. 471–473. 
A conversation 2006 Betts, Reginald Dwayne (Spring 2006). "A Conversation". Beltway Poetry Quarterly. 7 (2). Retrieved 2015-04-20. 
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. 
Misunderstood 2008 Betts, Reginald Dwayne (2008). "Misunderstood". The Drunken Boat. 8 (III-IV). Retrieved 2015-04-20. 
Soldier's song 2008 Betts, Reginald Dwayne (2008). "Soldier's song". The Drunken Boat. 8 (III-IV). Retrieved 2015-04-20. 

Non-fiction

References

  1. ↑ "The Exchange: R. Dwayne Betts on Prison, Poetry, and Justice". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
  2. ↑ Blake, Meredith (November 30, 2010). "The Exchange: R. Dwayne Betts on prison, poetry, and justice". The New Yorker. Retrieved December 8, 2015.
  3. 1 2 Andre Bagoo, "From prison to poetry", Trinidad and Tobago Newsday, May 30, 2016.
  4. ↑ Lonnae O'Neal Parker, "From Inmate to Mentor, Through Power of Books", The Washington Post, October 2, 2006.
  5. ↑ NPR Interview 12/8/15 with Terry Gross, Fresh Air
  6. ↑ Radcliffe. "Reginald Dwayne Betts".
  7. 1 2 Author Page > Reginald Dwayne Betts, Alice James Books.
  8. ↑ "New Voices: Reginald Betts", Ploughshares Blog, December 11, 2008.
  9. ↑ Craig Wilson, "R. Dwayne Betts: A Mind Unconfined by Jail", USA Today, August 12, 2009.
  10. ↑ White House. "President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts". Retrieved March 15, 2014.
  11. ↑ Reginald Dwayne Betts at Ploughshares.
  12. ↑ 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 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
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