Krista Franklin

Krista Franklin (she/her) is a writer, performer, visual artist, and the author of Solo(s) (University of Chicago Press, 2022), Too Much Midnight (Haymarket Books, 2020), the artist book Under the Knife (Candor Arts, 2018), and the chapbook Study of Love & Black Body (Willow Books, 2012). She is a Cave Canem fellow, a recipient of the Helen and Tim Meier Foundation for the Arts Achievement Award and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant. Her visual art has been exhibited at Western Exhibitions, DePaul Art Museum, Poetry Foundation, Konsthall C, Rootwork Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Studio Museum in Harlem, Chicago Cultural Center, National Museum of Mexican Art, and as set dressing for national television programs. Her writing and art is in the national collections of DePaul Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Library of Congress Rare Books and Special Collections, and the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection + Archive. She is published in Poetry, Black Camera, The Offing, Vinyl, and a number of anthologies and artist books. 

Awards: Ron Offen Poetry Prize, The University of Chicago; Chicago Review of Books Award, Best Poetry, Too Much Midnight; Meier Achievement Award; Joan Mitchell Foundation, Painters & Sculptors Grant; ICI – Joyce Foundation Research Fellowship; 3Arts, Make A Wave Award. Publications: The Lineages of Change Tarot, Art Director & Artist, AK Press; POETRY Magazine, Kara Walker: Back of Hand, folio; Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures, Catalog, Edited by Kevin M. Strait and Kinshasha Holman Conwill, Smithsonian Books; An Oral History with eliza myrie by Krista Franklin, BOMB Magazine; A Picture Gallery of the Soul, Catalog, Curated by Herman J. Milligan, Jr. and Howard Oransky, University of California Press; Raising the Dead: Three writers on engaging and honoring their ghosts, Curated by Phillip B. Williams, The Yale Review; Wherever I’m At: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry, Edited by Donald G. Evans and Robin Metz, The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, After Hours Press, and Third World Press; Solo(s), Krista Franklin, Edited by Ionit Behar, University of Chicago Press; “prelude – Rooted & Returning: A Conversation with Krista Franklin”, Hand Papermaking; Dia: Dispatch, “On Time”, Dia Blog; Too Much Midnight, Haymarket Books; Turn It Up: Music in Poetry from Jazz to Hip-Hop, Anthology, Green Writers Press; “Infinite Plentitude” (with du monde noir), Terremoto: Contemporary Art in the Americas; Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry, Anthology, Northwestern University Press; “Black Freedom Nebula: a meditation”, Dark Matter: Celestial Objects as Messengers of Love in These Troubled Times by Folayemi Wilson, Hyde Park Art Center & Candor Arts; The Long Term: Resisting Life Sentences Working Toward Freedom, Anthology, Haymarket Books; Under the Knife, Artist Book, Candor Arts; If Thoughts Could Heal by Cauleen Smith, Mantras for Voice, DuSable Museum for African American History; Encyclopedia Vol. 3, L-Z, Encyclopedia Project, Publication Studio Hudson; Vinculum, A Short Film by Cauleen Smith, voiceover poem; “History, As Written by the Victors”, The Offing. Exhibitions: any bright spark, Western Exhibitions, Chicago, IL; Correspondences. Lire Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Le Crédac, Ivry-sur-Seine, France; Of Her Becoming: Elizabeth Catlett’s Legacy in Chicago, Arts Incubator; Exhibition X: An Utterly Incomplete Examination of Collage in Contemporary Art, The Carnegie, Covington, KY; Sets. Stationery, Throbbing., RUSCHWOMAN, Chicago, IL; Solo(s): Krista Franklin, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College; Solo(s): Krista Franklin, DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, IL; …to take root among the stars, Poetry Foundation, Chicago; Angela Davis – Seize The Time, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA; Quest for The Marvelous, Chicago Cultural Center; Like Water, Center for Study of Race, Politics and Culture, University of  Chicago; Library of Love, Arts Incubator, University of Chicago