LatorialFaison.com

LATORIAL FAISON

FAISON BIOGRAPHY

Latorial Faison is an African-American poet, author, professor, and veteran senior military spouse. Her poetry inspires, educates, and uplifts as she bears witness with an old-fashioned literary voice. Raised by grandparents in rural Southampton County, Virginia, Faison addresses traditional and contemporary themes from an African American perspective. Faison won the 2023 Permafrost Poetry Prize for poetry collection Nursery Rhymes in Black (University of Alaska Press, 2025). She has two forthcoming publications with Finishing Line Press, Blood at the Root and THIS. Faison is a recipient of the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Prize. She has received fellowships from the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP), Virginia Humanities, ACUE, The Thurgood Marshall Foujndations, and the Furious Flower Poetry Center. This Pushcart nominee has also ranked semi-finalist for several notable poetry prizes such as the CAVE CANEM, Louise Bogan, and RHINO Poetry Prizes. Faison studied English Literature and Religious Studies at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and completed a graduate degree in English at VA TECH. She earned a doctoral degree in education from Virginia State University. Faison is the author of Mother to Son, I AM WOMAN, flesh, LOVE POEMS, Secrets of My Soul, Immaculate Perceptions, 28 Days of Poetry Celebrating Black History: Volumes 1-3, and children's book, Kendall's Golf Lesson co-authored and illustrated by two of her sons. Most recently, Faison has authored a historical research project, The Missed Education of the Negro: An Examination of the Black Segregated Education Experience in Southampton County, Virginia 1950-1970

Faison's poetry and creative nonfiction have been published alongside Dr. Cornel West, Iyanla Vanzant, Tavis Smiley, and Danny Glover in the 2003 NAACP Image Award winning book Keeping the Faith. Poems by Faison have been selected for publication in Callaloo, Obsidian, AUNT CHLOE, Untenured, PRAIRIE SCHOONER, Artemis Journal, PENUMBRA, Solstice Literary Magazine, Typishly Literary Magazine, Crab Orchard Review, Deep South Magazine, Stonecoast Review, About Place Journal, The Chattahoochee Review, Southern Women’s Review, Black Girl Seeks, Mandala Journal, Kalyani, Typehouse Literary Journal, Poetry Quarterly, and Blackberry: a magazine. Faison's early work has been featured in BET's Digital Drum, ChickenBones, RiverSedge, Anointed Magazine, The Taj Mahal Review, Red River Review, Locust Magazine, Carnelian, Timbooktu, The Nubian Chronicles, Lawson State Community College's "Celebrating Black History 365," Canadian Woman Studies, and The Poetry Society of Virginia's 80th Anniversary Anthology. Faison's poetry was amongst 20,000 poems submitted to US Congress in the Poets Against the War Initiative.

This veteran senior military spouse of a retired US ARMY Colonel is an esteemed poet, author, speaker, and performing artist who has been published internationally in South Africa, Ethiopia, India, Canada, South Korea, and Japan; however, she has spent the last two decades promoting poetry, creative writing, literacy, and education in local schools and organizations. Faison’s work has been anthologized in The Southern Poetry Anthology IX, Virginia's Best Emerging Poets, Pittsburg’s Dreamers Anthology: A Tribute to Martin Luther King & Ann Frank, Freedom Verse, Blended Voices, University of Toledo’s Poems for Peace Project, Ladies of the Iron Horse, Hurricane Katrina Couldn’t Break Us, Forging Freedom I & II, The Voices Project, and Three Minus One inspired by the film Return to Zero. Faison, a Pushcart nominee, was a semi-finalist for the Hudton Prize and the Cave Canem Poetry Prize. She has also been a finalist for the Peterson Poetry Prize & the first annual Furious Flower Poetry Prize as well as a semi-finalist for Ohio State University’s Wheeler Poetry Prize. Her literary talent has been showcased by the Department of the Defense and the Pentagon and published in STARS & STRIPES and The Fort Lee Traveller. Faison is a life member of the Poetry Society of VA; her poetry has been adapted for stage performance, used in short films and romance novels, and is currently being used in school curricula in various states.

Faison has served as founding editor of a nationally read poetry website, founder and publisher of a small press, editor of young writers anthologies, and founder of the College Bound Network online. Latorial Faison lives with her husband of 29 years in Virginia. Together, they have three sons. She teaches on the faculty at Virginia State University and is lauded as a Top Higher Education Voice on LinkedIn. Audiences of all ages are inspired by Faison's poetry, her story, and her life's work. Book her for your next conference, festival, retreat, collaboration, celebration, ceremony, educational, or literary project/event. For information on her upcoming events, visit the EVENTS link, contact her via this website, or network with Faison via Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Invite her to your school, college, university, church, business, or organization today! For interviews, email crosskeyspress@aol.com

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