Shara McCallum

She currently lives in Pennsylvania.

• Name — Shara McCallum • Birthplace — Kingston, Jamaica • Education — University of Miami, University of Maryland, College Park Binghamton University • Genre — Poetry • Notable Works — Madwoman • Awards — National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship; OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for poetry • Website — https: www.sharamccallum.com

McCallum was born in Kingston, Jamaica, to an African Jamaican father, Alastair McCallum, and a Venezuelan mother, Migdalia Bertorelli McCallum. McCallum graduated from the University of Miami, from the University of Maryland with an M.F.A., and from Binghamton University in New York with a PhD. She has taught at the Stonecoast MFA program. McCallum directs the Stadler Center for Poetry and taught creative writing and literature at Bucknell University. McCallum is now a professor of English at Penn State University. She lives in Pennsylvania with her family. McCallum's work has appeared in The Antioch Review, Callaloo, Chelsea, The Iowa Review, Verse, Creative Nonfiction, Seneca Review, and Witness. Her poems can be found in a number of journals worldwide in places like the United States, the UK, Israel and Latin America.

When she was a child, McCallum was raised practicing Rastafari; however when she migrated to the United States she stopped considering herself a member of any religion. Later in life, she converted to Judaism. McCallum was particularly fond of the idea that Judaism held about being part of a larger community than yourself alone. She found inspiration for her poems in the songs and practices, such as myths and rituals, of her religion. McCallum believes that her form of prayer and mediation is poetry.