Etheridge Knight
Poet
African-American poet associated with the Black Arts Movement and known for Poems from Prison (published in 1968). His other literary works include A Poem for Brother Man, The Idea of Ancestry, and Born of a Woman.
He escaped poverty by working as a United States Army medic. Sadly, he later served time in prison for robbery.
He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and won both a National Endowment for the Arts Grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship between 1972 and 1974.
He married Sonia Sanchez, a fellow poet; however, his problems with drug addiction ended this union. Later, he married and had two children with Mary McNally.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X inspired Knight to turn his anger over imprisonment and injustice into a passion for writing poetry.