Nikki Giovanni

Yolanda Cornelia “Nikki” Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on June 7, 1943. Raised in Woodlawn, Ohio, north of Cincinnati, Giovanni was the youngest of two daughters. Her older sister, Gary Ann, began to call Giovanni “Nikki” during childhood. In 1960, Giovanni enrolled at Fisk University. She was dismissed after her first semester for failing to conform to the university’s conservative standards.

Giovanni returned to Fisk four years later and participated in the Fisk Writing Workshops directed by then writer-in-residence John Oliver Killens. Giovanni also restored Fisk’s chapter of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She graduated magna cum laude in February 1967 with BA in history. Before taking graduate courses at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia, Giovanni organized the Black Arts Festival in Cincinnati. From 1967 to 1968, she studied social work at the University of Pennsylvania. Giovanni then enrolled in an MFA program at Columbia in 1969.

In her early work, Giovanni expressed the militant themes of the Black Arts Movement.

  • A Good Cry: What We Learn From Tears and Laughter (William Morrow, 2017)

    Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid (William Morrow, 2013)

    Bicycles: Love Poems (William Morrow, 2009)

    Acolytes (HarperCollins, 2007)

    The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968–1998 (Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2003)

    Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not-Quite Poems (William Morrow, 2002)

    Grand Fathers: Reminiscences, Poems, Recipes, and Photos of the Keepers of Our Traditions (Henry Holt and Co., 1999)

    Blues For All the Changes: New Poems (William Morrow, 1999)

    Love Poems (William Morrow, 1997)

    Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni (University Press of Mississippi, 1996)

    Those Who Ride the Night Winds (William Morrow and Company, 1983)

    Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day (William Morrow and Company, 1978)

    The Women and the Men (William Morrow and Company, 1975)

    My House (HarperCollins, 1972)

    Re: Creation (Broadside Press, 1970)

    Night Comes Softly (Medic Press, 1970)

    Black Judgment (Broadside Press, 1969)

    Black Feeling, Black Talk (Harper Perennial, 1968)

  • Sacred Cows and Other Edibles (William Morrow and Company, 1988)

  • A Library (Versify, 2022)

    Rosa (Henry Holt and Company, 2005)

    The Sun Is So Quiet (Henry Holt and Co., 1996)

    The Genie in the Jar (Henry Holt and Co., 1996)

    Knoxville, Tennessee (Scholastic, 1994)

    Vacation Time (HarperCollins, 1981)

    Ego-Tripping and Other Poems for Young People (William Morrow and Company, 1973)

    Spin a Soft Black Song: Poems for Children (Hill and Wang, 1971)