Poet, whose work has tackled the everyday racism faced by black Americans, plans to use the money to found a ‘Racial Imaginary Institute’
Claudia Rankine, whose award-winning poetry collection Citizen explores the stories of black Americans encountering everyday racism, has been awarded a MacArthur “genius grant” worth $625,000 (£475,000).
Praised as “a critical voice in current conversations about racial violence”, Rankine is one of 23 people chosen by the MacArthur Foundation as a 2016 fellow. The fellowships come with a stipend of $625,000, paid out over the next five years, and are intended to allow the recipients to “exercise their own creative instincts for the benefit of human society”.
Related: Poet Claudia Rankine: ‘The invisibility of black women is astounding’
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