Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (born 1967) is an American poet and novelist, and a professor of English at the University of Oklahoma. She has published five collections of poetry and a novel. Her 2020 collection The Age of Phillis reexamines the life of American poet Phillis Wheatley, based on years of archival research; it was longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Poetry, and won the 2021 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry.
Also recorded as Honoree Jeffers · Honorée Jeffers · Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

Martin Alonso · Dodge Poetry Festival 2 · CC BY 2.0
- Name
- Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
- Born
- 1967
- Birthplace
- Kokomo, Indiana, United States
- Education
- Talladega College University of Alabama
- Occupation
- * Poet
- Awards
- NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry (2021)
- Nationality
- United States
- Fields
- poetry · essay · creative and professional writing · creative writing
- Known for
- The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois
- Honours
- National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction
- Languages
- English
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Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (born 1967) is an American poet and novelist, and a professor of English at the University of Oklahoma. She has published five collections of poetry and a novel. Her 2020 collection The Age of Phillis reexamines the life of American poet Phillis Wheatley, based on years of archival research; it was longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Poetry, and won the 2021 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry.
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wikidata · Q55713401 · wikipedia · Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
In this article
Biography
Biography
Her debut novel, The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, was published by HarperCollins in 2021.
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers studied at Talladega College and University of Alabama. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is poetry, essay and creative and professional writing. Places of work recorded in the authority are Norman. Employment is recorded with University of Oklahoma. Works named in the authority record are The Love Songs of W. Distinctions recorded are National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Honorée Fanonne Jeffers • Born — 1967 • Birthplace — Kokomo, Indiana, United States • Education — Talladega College University of Alabama • Occupation — * Poet • novelist • academic • Notable Works — The Age of Phillis (2020); The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois (2021) • Awards — NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry (2021) • Employer — University of Oklahoma • Website — https: honoreejeffers.com/
Biography
Biography
Jeffers was born in Kokomo, Indiana, and raised Catholic in Durham, North Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia. Her mother's family is from Eatonton, Georgia; her father's family, she recounted, was "black bourgeois and fair skinned" (her father, Lance Jeffers, was also a poet), and they were not happy when he married a working-class, darker-skinned woman. Jeffers wrote about her family background in Red Clay Suite (2007), and said in an interview: "The only families I have known are my mother's folk, and my mother's parents were sharecroppers. So I write about her family's land and what this land means to me". Jeffers graduated from Talladega College in 1996, and then got an MFA from the University of Alabama. In a 2004 interview with Callaloo journal, she recalled being the only Black poet in her creative writing program, and both standing on the shoulders of the Black Arts Movement (BAM) and moving away from it, for instance in the BAM's lack of acceptance of homosexuality. Comparing the more radical poetry she wrote while at Alabama with her later work, Jeffers said that she had "discovered a need to represent subtlety and emotional interrogation". She is a full professor at the University of Oklahoma, where she teaches creative writing. She has published in literary journals, including Ploughshares, Georgetown Review, Callaloo, The Iowa Review, Oxford American, Prairie Schooner, and Poetry, and her work has been anthologized by poets/editors such as Cornelius Eady, Toi Derricotte, and Jesmyn Ward.
Background
Background
The life of Phillis Wheatley, the 18th-century American poet, is known mostly through the biographical sketch written by Margaretta Matilda Odell, a White woman, some fifty years after Wheatley's death in 1784. Odell claimed to have been related to the Wheatley family that had enslaved Phillis Wheatley (who soon after manumission and marriage to a John Peters changed her name to Phillis Peters). Scholars have noted how Odell's account "reads like a sentimental novel", erases the trauma of kidnapping and the Middle Passage, and all but wipes away the fact that the Wheatley family enslaved Phillis and others. Instead, it portrays Susanna Wheatley as a benevolent Christian who saves Phillis, and John Peters as a sexually threatening Black man who seduces Phillis and then leaves her financially ruined. Jeffers was granted the 2009 Robert and Charlotte Baron Fellowship from the American Antiquarian Society to support the research and writing of The Age of Phillis, which was published by Wesleyan University Press in 2020. Jeffers spent 15 years working on the book, and said: "I feel like Ms. Phillis chose me."
"Critical fabulation"
"Critical fabulation"
Odell's is the accepted narrative that Jeffers corrects in her book; she "fills in the gaps". For instance, Jeffers discovered that Peters may not have abandoned his wife, that Odell may have misrepresented the relationship, and that there is no evidence that Odell was related to the Wheatley family. The main text of Jeffers' book is a collection of poetry that rereads and rewrites Wheatley's life, combining creative fiction with historical research (or "critical fabulation", in the words of Saidiya Hartman). For instance, Wheatley was known to have written a second volume of poems, which was never published; Jeffers came across a letter that showed that Peters tried to get that volume printed, indicating that rather than seduction and abandonment, Wheatley and Peters may have simply been in love: "I think it's logical to assume that many, many black folks fell in love with many, many other black folks....This assumption is a rational consequence of acknowledging our black humanity." Jeffers' poems fill in the gaps left by Odell's biography; she includes love letters between Phillis and Peters, reimagines her life before she was kidnapped and enslaved, offers a more complex picture of her relationship with the Wheatleys, and provides commentary on other issues. For instance, Jeffers offers a first draft of a letter accompanying Wheatley's famous "To His Excellency, George Washington", which "gives vent to her exasperation with flattering white egos" but then strikes through some phrases: Sir, I have taken the freedom which if my master hadn't given me would have been my own anyway to address your Excellency who I heard behaves like either a gentlemen or a tyrant depending on his moods or his money
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
Jeffers' first novel, The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, was published to critical acclaim in August 2021. Oprah Winfrey announced on CBS This Morning that it was her new selection for Oprah's Book Club. The book was a finalist for the 2021 Kirkus Prize for Fiction. The novel was also longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction. Reviewing the novel in The Guardian, Kadish Morris wrote: "This book is mammoth in size and scope and, though at times it overspills with a surplus of details, is exceptional in the way it engages so deeply and emphatically with history."
Poetry
Poetry
• The Gospel of Barbecue (Kent State University Press, 2000) • Outlandish Blues (Wesleyan University Press, 2003) • Red Clay Suite (Southern Illinois University Press, 2007) • The Glory Gets (Wesleyan University Press, 2015) • The Age of Phillis (Wesleyan University Press, 2020)
Novels
Novels
• The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois (Harper, 2021)
Nonfiction/Memoir
Nonfiction/Memoir
• Misbehaving at the Crossroads (Harper, 2025)
Awards
Awards
The Age of Phillis was longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Poetry. The book was also nominated for the 2021 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry, and won.
Honors
Honors
Jeffers received the Harper Lee Award for Literary Distinction in 2018, and was inducted into the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame in 2020. Her work on Phillis Wheatley was recognized by the American Antiquarian Society, which inducted her into their organization. Jeffers became a United States Artists fellow, with a $50,000 stipend.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Winkler, Elizabeth. How Phillis Wheatley Was Recovered Through History: For decades, a white woman's memoir shaped our understanding of America's first Black poet. Does a new book change the story?. The New Yorker. July 30, 2020.
- 2.McDonnell, Brandy. 'I feel like Miss Phillis chose me,' Oklahoma poet says about award-winning book. The Oklahoman. March 28, 2021.
- 3.Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. Dodge Poetry.
- 4.Fanonne Jeffers, Honorée. Tweet. Twitter.
- 5.Haskins, Shelly. Talladega College grad wins 2018 Harper Lee award. The Huntsville Times. March 11, 2018.
- 6.Rowell, Charles Henry. 'Speaking from a Creolized Environment': An Interview with Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. Callaloo. 27. 4. 976–88. Autumn 2004. 10.1353/cal.2004.0175.
- 7.Macdonald, Moira. Check out more than 20 books to learn about black history, racism and social justice. The Detroit News. June 25, 2020.
- 8.Santos, Luis. A Reading and Q&A with Honorée Fanonne Jeffers and The Age of Phillis. The Scarlet. November 23, 2020.
- 9.Strand, Karla. Poetry for the Rest of Us: 2020 Roundup. Ms. April 22, 2020.
- 10.National Book Foundation. 2020 Winners: Poetry.
- 11.NAACP. Nominations Announced For 52nd NAACP Image Awards. February 2, 2021.
- 12.Book Marks reviews for The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers. Book Marks.
- 13.Oprah on her book club selection: 'The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois' by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. The Chestnut Post. August 24, 2021.
- 14.Oprah's New Book Club Pick: The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. Oprah.com. August 26, 2021.
- 15.Winfrey picks 'Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois' for book club. The Independent. August 24, 2021.
- 16.Schaub, Michael. Finalists for 2021 Kirkus Prize Are Revealed. Kirkus Reviews. September 13, 2021.
- 17.Mayer, Petra. Here Are The Longlist Nominees For This Year's National Book Awards. NPR. September 17, 2021.
- 18.2021 Winners. National Book Foundation.
- 19.Morris, Kadish. Review: The Love Songs of WEB Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers review – an exceptional debut. The Guardian. January 19, 2022.
- 20.McLean, Madison. 7 authors to be inducted into the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame. Alabama Public Radio. March 6, 2020.
- 21.United States Artists. Honorée Fanonne Jeffers.
- 22.Behnke, Emily. Talk Next Season's Best New Titles at Virtual Buzz Books Editors Panel. American Booksellers Association. January 6, 2021.
- 23.Briefly reviewed in The New Yorker, September 13, 2021.
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