Randall Horton, Ph.D.

Randall Horton, Ph.D. Image
Professor

English Department
College of Arts and Sciences

Dr. Horton will be on sabbatical during the Fall 2024 semester.
Education

Ph.D., English/Creative Writing, SUNY Albany

M.F.A., Poetry, Chicago State University

B.A., English, University of the District of Columbia

About Randall

Randall Horton is the recipient of the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award, the Bea Gonzalez Poetry Award, the Great Lakes College Association New Writers Award for Creative Nonfiction (Hook: A Memoir) and a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Literature. In 2018-2019 Dr. Horton was selected as Poet-in-Residence for the Civil Rights Corps in Washington DC, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to challenging systemic injustice in the American legal system. He is a member of the experimental performance group Heroes Are Gang Leaders which recently received the 2018 American Book Award in Oral Literature and their musical project, The Baraka Sessions, was named best vocal jazz album by NPR in 2019. In 2020 Dr. Horton received a Right to Return Fellowship to creatively address issues of mass incarceration and racial justice while advancing campaigns for change. His latest collection of poetry {#289-128}: Poems is published by the University of Kentucky (2020) and received the 2021 American Book Award. Dead Weight: A Memoir in Essays was published in 2022 by Northwestern University Press.

Selected Publications

Dead Weight: A Memoir in Essays (Feb. 15, 2022)

{#289-128}: Poems (University Press of Kentucky New Poetry & Prose Series, Sep. 8, 2020)

Hook (Feb. 1, 2018)

Pitch Dark Anarchy (Triquarterly/Northwestern University Press, Feb. 2, 2013)

Roxbury (Nonfiction, Kattywompus Press, Spring, 2012).

"Memory: Elvie Three Months after Rosetta's Funeral, 1954," Brilliant Corners: Journal of Jazz & Literature, (Spring 2013)

"Constructed Epiphany," "Because a Bicycle Symphonizes Freedom," "Aesthetic Freedom as Phenomena," and "Flame Eternal: Echoes of 1822." Black Cinema (University of Indiana, Spring 2013)

The Lingua Franca of Ninth Street (Main Street Rag, 2009)

The Definition of Place (Main Street Rag, 2006)

Courses Taught
  • ENGL 2217 African-American Literature I
  • ENGL 2218 African-American Literature II
  • ENGL 2267 Creative Writing I
  • ENGL 2268 Creative Writing II
  • ENGL 4481 Special Topics: Prison Literature
  • ENGL 4491 Special Topics: Advanced Poetry Workshop

In the Media

In the Media

Cardinal Points: Poet educates community

Randall Horton, professor of English, combined a reading from his new book, “Dead Weight,” and his first performance with the new band “Radical Reversal” as part of a special performance at SUNY Plattsburgh.