Kwame Dawes is the author of thirteen books of poetry and many books of fiction, nonfiction, and drama. His collection Hope’s Hospice (Peepal Tree Press) will be published this spring. He is Distinguished Poet in Residence at the University of South Carolina, where he directs the South Carolina Poetry Initiative and the University of South Carolina Arts Institute. Dawes is also the programming director of Jamaica’s Calabash International Literary Festival, which takes place each May.