Ali Black is a graduate student with the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences participating in the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (NEOMFA) program and is the Creative Writing Special Projects Assistant at the CSU Poetry Center. She is a writer from Cleveland, Ohio and directs a literacy-based youth program on Cleveland’s west side.

Ali is the recipient of the 2016 Academy of American Poets University & College Poetry Prize for her poem “Kinsman.” Her work has appeared in A Race Anthology: Dispatches and Artifacts From a Segregated City, december, The Rumpus, jubilat, LitHub and The Offing. Her first book of poetry, If It Heals At All, is forthcoming from Jacar Press.

Ali Black's first collection of poetry, ‘If it Heals at All’, is forthcoming from Jacar Press. Her work was selected for the New Voices Series by Jaki Shelton Green. Jaki Shelton Green had this to say about Black's work: “This collection is searing poetry that will not allow us to forget the unknown grief buried inside of boundless pleasure.”

‘If It Heals At All’ traces the slim boundaries between life and death, blundered justice, and the boldness of Black love reimagined.