Melba Joyce Boyd

Melba Joyce Boyd is a native Detroiter and an awarding-winning poet, scholar, biographer, editor and filmmaker.  First published by Dudley Randall’s Broadside Distinguished Press in 1972, she is the author of 13 books, nine of which are poetry.  She is the author of Discarded Legacy: Politics and Poetics in the Life of Frances E. W. Harper and Wrestling with the Muse: Dudley Randall and the Broadside Press, editor of two poetry anthologies. 

She is the 2023 Kresge Eminent Artist Award, and she has received multiple book awards and honors including two Library of Michigan Notable Book Awards, The Independent Publishers Award for Poetry, The NAACP Image Award for Poetry, the ForeWord Book Award, and the Black Caucus of the American Library Association Honor. 

She has over 100 essays on literature and film published in national and international journals, and her poetry has been anthologized and appeared in major literary journals, including Poetry. Her poetry has been translated into German, Italian and French.  She is a Distinguished Professor of African American Studies at Wayne State University. She has a Doctor of Arts in English from the University of Michigan, and a M.A. ad B.A. Degrees in English from Western Michigan University.