Shara Mccallum

#bocas2026

Biography

From Jamaica, Shara McCallum is the author of five books of poetry, published in the US and UK: Madwoman (longlisted for the 2018 OCM Bocas Prize), The Face of Water: New and Selected Poems, This Strange Land, Song of Thieves, and The Water Between Us. Her poems have appeared widely in the US, Europe, the Caribbean, and Latin America and have been translated into Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian, Dutch, and Turkish. Her personal essays appear regularly in print and online. Recognition for her writing includes a Witter Bynner Fellowship from the Library of Congress, a National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship, the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize for Poetry, and other awards. From 2003-2017 she was Director of the Stadler Center for Poetry at Bucknell University. She is currently Liberal Arts Professor of English at Penn State University.

Awards

2018 OCM Bocas Prize for Poetry Winner, OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature

Years Attended

2012, 2012 Adult's Festival Participant, 2018, 2018 Adult’s Festival Participant

Shara Mccallum

Author
Jamaica
Events Featuring Shara Mccallum
2021
Caribbean Literature Day: Let’s Talk Caribbean!
Festival Programme, Stand and Deliver Event
Event Date:
2018
Take Two: Let poems blaze
Festival Programme, Words Alive Event
Readings Event
Event Date:
Old Fire Station
2012
Anxieties of influence: postcolonial writing and literary tradition
Festival Programme Event
Discussion Event
Event Date:
Old Fire Station
2012
Fred D’Aguiar and Shara McCallum
Festival Programme Event
Readings Event
Event Date:
AV Room
2012
Form and freedom
Festival Programme Event
Workshop Event
Event Date:
1st Floor Seminar Room