Remembering Nikki Giovanni

In her late twenties Nikki Giovanni was already one of the foremost voices in the Black Arts and Rights movements, often sharing her voice and her poetry at sold out venues. In the 1970’s she co-founded a publishing company, Nik Tom, dedicated to providing a voice for other African-American women authors. In those same years she began writing books for children, opening the door to literature for an audience of long underserved young people of color.

In 1987 she took a position at Virginia Tech where she taught creative writing till retiring in 2022 as a University Distinguished Professor. Many of her students, not surprisingly, went on to forge distinguish writing careers of their own.

Not only was she celebrated as an unapologetic voice for the African-American community, but she was also a strong advocate of gender equality.

Over the course of her career, she has been a recipient of numerous awards. Here are just a few: 1968 National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship, 1970 Woman of the Year Ebony Magazine, 1971 Woman of the Year Mademoiselle Magazine, 1985 Ohio Woman’s Hall of Fame, 1996 Langston Hughes Award for Distinguished Contribution to Arts and Letters, 2002 Rosa Parks Women of Courage Award (first recipient), 2006 Caldecott Honor, 2007 Carl Sandburg Literary Award, 2017 Maya Angelou Lifetime Achievement Award.

The SCBWI was honored to have her as our conference keynote speaker on three separate occasions. Her moving, heartfelt, and often humorous talks never failed to bring the audience to their feet. 

Her legacy lives on, but we join millions of those she touched in mourning her loss.