Glenis Redmond is the First Poet Laureate of Greenville, South Carolina. She is a Kennedy Center Teaching Artist, and a Cave Canem alumni. She has authored six books of poetry: Backbone (Underground Epics, 2000), Under the Sun (Main Street Rag, 2002), and What My Hand Say (Press 53, 2016), Listening Skin (Four Way Books), Three Harriets & Others (Finishing Line Press), and Praise Songs for Dave the Potter, Art by Jonathan Green, and Poetry by Glenis Redmond (University of Georgia Press).

Glenis was born on Shaw AFB in Sumter, South Carolina. She presently resides in Greenville. She was the founder of the Greenville Poetry Slam in the early 90’s. She received her MFA in Poetry from Warren Wilson College while touring full-time as a poet and mother-of-twins, Amber, and Celeste Sherer. She is now a Gaga to three grandchildren Julian and Paisley and newborn, Quinn.

Glenis has spent almost three decades touring the country as a poet and teaching artist. Since 2014, she has served as the mentor poet for the National Student Poets Program through Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. In the past she has prepared these exceptional youth poets to read at the Library of Congress, the Department of Education, and for First Lady Michelle Obama at The White House.

For more about Glenis: glenisredmond.com

Interview location: Greenville, South Carolina

Glenis' Books on the Bed:

Generations: A Memoir by Lucille Clifton

The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010

Gullah Spirit and Gullah Images by Jonathan Green

Kindred by Octavia Butler

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

In Search of Color Everywhere by E. Ethelbert Miller (Editor) & Terrance Cummings (Illustrator)

June Jordan's Poetry for the People

Matt's gifts for Glenis:

Call It Horses by Jessie van Eerden

Searching for Dr. Harris by Margaret Humphreys

Episode timeline:

0:00-4:52 — Intro

4:53-58:19 - Glenis' story

58:20-1:58:28 - Glenis' Books on the Bed