Charif Shanahan | |
|---|---|
 Shanahan in 2024 | |
| Born | 1983 (age 41–42) |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation(s) | Poet and translator |
| Notable work | Trace Evidence |
| Website | charifshanahan.com |
Charif Shanahan (born 1983) is an American poet, translator, educator, and editor.
Charif Shanahan | |
|---|---|
| Shanahan in 2024 | |
| Born | 1983 (age 41–42) |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation(s) | Poet and translator |
| Notable work | Trace Evidence |
| Website | charifshanahan.com |
Charif Shanahan (born 1983) is an American poet, translator, educator, and editor.
Shanahan was born in the Bronx to an Irish American father from New York City and a Moroccan mother. His paternal line originates in County Kerry, Ireland. His maternal line migrated from southern Morocco to Casablanca and extends through Morocco to Mali, Mauritania, and Senegal. During his twenties, Shanahan lived abroad in the United Kingdom, Morocco, Italy, and Switzerland. [1]
He earned an AB in Comparative Literature and Creative Writing from Princeton University; an AM in Comparative Literature and Literary Translation from Dartmouth College; and an MFA in Poetry from NYU's Graduate Creative Writing Program, where he studied with Sharon Olds and Yusef Komunyakaa, with whom he had first worked as an undergraduate at Princeton. [2]
Shanahan's debut poetry collection Into Each Room We Enter without Knowing (Southern Illinois University Press, 2017) was the recipient of the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award, selected by Allison Joseph, and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry and the Publishing Triangle's Thom Gunn Award. [3] His second collection, Trace Evidence: Poems (Tin House, 2023), was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, longlisted for the National Book Award for Poetry, [4] and winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry [5] and the Publishing Triangle's Thom Gunn Award.
His work has been anthologized in Poetry Is Not a Luxury: Poems for All Seasons (Simon & Schuster, 2025; ed. Anonymous), African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song (Library of America, 2020; ed. Kevin Young), Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry (Northwestern University Press, 2019; eds. Lauren K. Alleyne, Joanne V. Gabbin), and American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time (Graywolf Press, 2018; ed. Tracy K. Smith). [6] [7]
Shanahan is currently an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Northwestern University, where he teaches in the undergraduate and Litowitz MFA+MA programs. [8] Previously, he taught at Stanford University, [9] where he held both a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Poetry and Jones Lectureship in Poetry. [10]
As a translator, he works primarily from Italian. His translations of Italian-language poets Gëzim Hajdari and Donata Berra have been published in Circumference, [11] A Public Space, and RHINO Poetry .
From December 2022 through July 2023, Shanahan served as Guest Editor of Poetry magazine. [12]