Cheryl Clarke is a poet, essayist, scholar, and activist. Her most recent books are the critical study, After Mecca: Women Poets and the Black Arts Movement (Rutgers Press, 2005); The Days of Good Looks: Prose and Poetry 1980-2005 (Carroll and Graf, 2006); and the poetry collection LIVING AS A LESBIAN (A Midsummer Night's Press, 2014). She lives with her partner in Jersey City, NJ and Hobart, NY.