Desiree Bailey

Writer in Residence

Contact
Department of English
Email: dcbaile@clemson.edu

Education
M.F.A., Poetry, New York University (2021); M.F.A., Literary Arts, Brown University (2015); B.A., English, Georgetown University (2011)

Research Interests
Creative Writing, Contemporary Poetry, Black Literary Arts, Caribbean Literary Arts

Desiree C. Bailey is from Trinidad and Tobago, and Queens, NY. She is the author of What Noise Against the Cane which won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry. What Noise Against the Cane was also a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and the T.S. Eliot Four Quartets Prize, was longlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize and the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, and was selected as one of the Best Books of 2021 by the New York Public Library. Desiree is also the author of the fiction chapbook In Dirt or Saltwater and has short fiction and poems published in Best American Poetry, Best New Poets, American Short Fiction, Callaloo, and the Academy of American Poets, among other journals. Desiree has a BA from Georgetown University, an MFA in Fiction from Brown University and an MFA in Poetry from New York University. She has received fellowships and residencies from the Norman Mailer Center, Kimbilio Fiction, Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop, Poets House, The Conversation, Princeton in Africa and the James Merrill House. She is also a recipient of the New York State Council on the Arts/New York Foundation for the Arts award and Poets & Writers’ Amy Award. Desiree is the inaugural Writer-in-Residence at Clemson University.