Yolanda Wisher was the 2017–2018 CPCW Fellow in Poetics & Poetic Practice. She is the author of the poetry collection Monk Eats an Afro and the coeditor of the anthology Peace Is a Haiku Song. She holds an MA in English/Creative Writing-Poetry from Temple University and a BA in English/Black Studies from Lafayette College. Wisher is a 2015 Pew Fellow and a 2016 Hedgebrook Writer-in-Residence. She was named the first Poet Laureate of Montgomery County Pennsylvania in 1999 and the third Poet Laureate of Philadelphia in 2016. She founded and directed the Germantown Poetry Festival (2006-2010), served as Director of Art Education for the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program (2010-2015), and worked as a Cultural Agent and Chief Rhapsodist of Wherewithal for the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture (2014-2016).
Photo by Mark Palacio.
