18 Facts About Nikky Finney

Nikky Finney was the Guy Davenport Endowed Professor of English at the University of Kentucky for twenty years.

An alumna of Talladega College, and author of four books of poetry and a short-story cycle, Finney is an advocate for social justice and cultural preservation.

Nikky Finney is a member of The Wintergreen Women Writers Collective.

One of three children, Finney is the only daughter of Ernest A Finney, Jr.

Nikky Finney's father began his career as a civil rights attorney, and in 1961, served as Head Legal Counsel for the Friendship 9, black junior college students arrested and charged when trying to desegregate McCrory's lunch counter in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

Nikky Finney committed to documenting the trajectory of African-American contributions to American creativity and culture.

Nikky Finney matriculated at Atlanta University, working in the African-American Studies department, under African-American historians Dr Richard Long and Dr David Dorsey.

Nikky Finney immersed herself in study of the poetry and visual arts of the Black Arts Movement.

Nikky Finney's targeted result of her independent years was achieved: On Wings Made of Gauze, her first book of poems, was completed in Atlanta.

Nikky Finney was recruited to a position as Visiting Writer in the English department at the University of Kentucky, by South Carolina-born novelist and poet Percival Everett.

In 1993, Nikky Finney was offered a post on the permanent faculty.

Nikky Finney took a leave from the University of Kentucky in 1999 to hold the Goode Chair in the Humanities at Berea College, the first interracial and coeducational college in the South.

Nikky Finney edited and wrote the introduction to The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, which was published by the University of Georgia Press in 2007, under the auspices of Cave Canem, an organization that works to increase opportunities for African-American poets.

The Ringing Ear, with entries selected and edited by Nikky Finney, showcased the work of one hundred African-American poets who are southern or who wrote on southern subjects.

Nikky Finney was commissioned to write a new poem entitled "The Battle of and for the Black Face Boy" to be presented to the campus community in October 2015.

Nikky Finney is a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.

Nikky Finney is a founding member of the Affrilachian Poets, a writing collective based in Lexington, Kentucky.

Nikky Finney has served on the faculty and Board of the Cave Canem Foundation, where she shepherds younger poets in the spirit of her mentorship experience.