Terry Blackhawk

Terry Bohnhorst Blackhawk was born in California and grew up in Massachusetts, Georgia, and Indiana. As a student at Antioch College in the 1960s, she spent 18 months in Europe, learning both Swedish and Italian. After earning a BA in Literature, she moved to Detroit where her career as a high school Creative Writing teacher for Detroit Public Schools eventually led to her founding, in 1995, InsideOut Literary Arts Project, a nonprofit writers-in-schools program dedicated to amplifying the voices of Detroit youth. Blackhawk holds a Ph.D. in Reading and Language Arts Education from Oakland University, which granted her an Honorary Doctorate in 2013. Twice named Michigan Creative Writing Teacher of the Year, Blackhawk's poetry collections include body & field (Michigan State UP, 1999); Escape Artist (BkMk Press, 2003) winner of the John Ciardi Prize; and The Light Between (Wayne State UP, 2012). One Less River (Mayapple Press) was named a Top 2019 Indie Poetry Title by Kirkus Reviews. Upon her retirement from InsideOut in 2015, Wayne State UP brought out To Light a Fire: Twenty Years with the InsideOut Literary Arts Project, a collection of essays co-edited with InsideOut Senior Writer Peter Markus. Other awards include the Foley Poetry Prize, the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry from Nimrod International, a Kresge Arts in Detroit Literary Fellowship, induction into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame, and the Antioch College Horace Mann Alumni Award for victories for humanity. After fifty years as a Detroiter, Terry moved to Connecticut to live near her son, Yale Professor Ned Blackhawk, and grandchildren.