Randall Horton
Randall Horton (born c. 1961 in Birmingham) is an author and poet, and a professor at the University of New Haven in New Haven, Connecticut.
Horton is a 1979 graduate of Parker High School. He enrolled at Howard University in Washington D.C. to study economics. He became involved in the illicit drug trade and dropped out during his senior year. He was sentenced to prison in Montgomery County, Maryland in 1996 and participated in a Jail Addiction Services program where he was invited to write about his experiences. After reading a poem by E. Ethelbert Miller in the Washington Post he was motivated to contact the poet, who became a mentor.
After his release, Horton completed his bachelor's degree through the University of the District of Columbia. He went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing at Chicago State University and a Ph.D. in English and creative writing at the State University of New York in Albany.
Horton has edited Warpland: A Journal of Black Literature and Ideas (2005) and was co-editor of Fingernails Across the Chalkboard, published in 2006 by the Third World Press. He has received fellowships from the Archie D. and Bertha H. Walker Foundation and from Cave Canem, an African-American writer's center.
Horton is a co-founder of the experimental poetry band Radical Reversal and its associated non-profit, which works to foster creative spaces within prisons, including Jefferson County's G. Ross Bell Youth Detention Center. The project is supported by the Poetry Foundation.
Publications
- Horton, Randall (2006) The Definition of Place. Main Street Rag. ISBN 1599480417
- Horton, Randall, M. L. Hunter and Becky Thompson, editors (2007) Fingernails Across the Chalkboard: Poetry and Prose on HIV/AIDS form the Black Diaspora. Third World Press. ISBN 088378274X
- Horton, Randall (2015) Hook: A Memoir. Augury Books ISBN 9780988735569
References
- Horton, Randall (April 15, 2023) "The song that left me speechless: In Studio 111, music and poetry let youth in detention be heard." Salon
- Posey, Sym (February 29, 2024) "How Birmingham’s Randall Horton Went From Inmate to Tenured College Professor." The Birmingham Times
External links
- Randall Horton website
- Randall Horton at newhaven.edu
- Radical Reversal website
- photo of Horton by Larry O. Gay on Flickr.com