| Tara Betts | |
|---|---|
| Born | Kankakee, Illinois |
| Occupation | Poet, Editor, Teacher |
| Notable work(s) | Arc & Hue |
| Notable award(s) | 1999 Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Poetry Awards |
| Spouse(s) | Rich Villar |
Tara Betts is the author of the book Arc & Hue, her debut collection on the Willow Books imprint of Aquarius Press.[1] In 2010, Essence Magazine named her as one of their "40 Favorite Poets".[2]
Tara is a lecturer in creative writing at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. A Cave Canem graduate, Tara received her MFA in Poetry from New England College and residencies from Ragdale Foundation, Centrum and Caldera, and an Illinois Arts Council Artist fellowship.[3]
She appeared on HBO’s “Def Poetry Jam”[4] and in the Black Family Channel series “SPOKEN” with Jessica Care Moore. She has also been one of the writers/performers in girlstory-an intergenerational, multicultural women’s performance collective. Tara has also performed in plays, including two SouthWest V-Day productions of Eve Ensler’s “Vagina Monologues” at Chicago’s DuSable Museum. After winning Guild Complex’s Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Award, she represented Chicago twice at the National Poetry Slam.
Tara’s work has appeared in Essence, the Steppenwolf Theater production “Words on Fire,” Obsidian III, Callaloo, PMS, Meridians, Drum Voices Revue, WSQ, Columbia Poetry Review, Ninth Letter, Hanging Loose, Drunken Boat, Mythium, Reverie, and WombPoetry. Her work has been anthologized in Gathering Ground (University of Michigan Press), Bum Rush the Page (Three Rivers Press), Power Lines (Tia Chucha Press), Poetry Slam (Manic D Press), Black Writing from Chicago (Southern Illinois University Press), ROLE CALL (Third World Press), These Hands I Know (Sarabande), Best Black Women’s Erotica 2 (Cleis Press), Hurricane Blues (Southeast Missouri University Press), Home Girls Make Some Noise: Hip Hop Feminism (Parker Publishing), Fingernails Across a Chalkboard (Third World Press) and Letters to the World (Red Hen Press).
Tara has also been a freelance writer for publications such as XXL, The Source, BIBR, Mosaic Magazine and Black Radio Exclusive.
Full-Length Poetry Collections
Poems Online
Reviews
Interviews
Audio/Video Links