Duriel E. Harris Heralded as one of three Chicago poets for the 21st century by WBEZ Chicago Public Radio, Duriel E. Harris holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, an M.A. from the Graduate Creative Writing Program at NYU and a B.A. in Literature from Yale University. A member of reedist Douglas Ewart’s experimental jazz choir, Inventions, Harris is a co-founder of The Black Took Collective and the Poetry Editor for Obsidian III: Literature in the African Diaspora.

Recent appearances include featured performances at Millennium Park (Chicago), the Bowery Poetry Club (NY), the Studio Museum in Harlem and The New Langton Center for the Arts (San Francisco). Harris has received grants from the Illinois Arts Council and the Cave Canem Foundation. She is currently at work on “Soma,” a sound recording and AMNESIAC a media art/book project—the core of which was drafted during a summer residency at The MacDowell Colony in 2004. Drag, her first book, released in September 2003 by Elixir Press was hailed by Black Issues Book Review as one of the best poetry volumes of 2003.