Terry Bohnhorst Blackhawk was born in California and grew up in Massachusetts, Georgia, and Indiana. As a student at Antioch College in the 1960s, she spent 18 months in Europe, learning both Swedish and Italian. After earning a BA in Literature, she moved to Detroit where her career as a high school Creative Writing teacher for Detroit Public Schools eventually led to her founding, in 1995, InsideOut Literary Arts Project, a nonprofit writers-in-schools program dedicated to amplifying the voices of Detroit youth. Blackhawk holds a Ph.D. in Reading and Language Arts Education from Oakland University, which granted her an Honorary Doctorate in 2013. Twice named Michigan Creative Writing Teacher of the Year, she has frequently shared her passions for ekphrastic poetry and for Emily Dickinson through poems, essays, workshops, and presentations.
Terry’s poetry collections include body & field (Michigan State UP, 1999); Escape Artist (BkMk Press, 2003) winner of the John Ciardi Prize; and The Light Between (Wayne State UP, 2012). One Less River (Mayapple Press) was named a Top 2019 Indie Poetry Title by Kirkus Reviews. Upon her retirement from InsideOut in 2015, Wayne State UP brought out To Light a Fire: Twenty Years with the InsideOut Literary Arts Project, a collection of essays co-edited with InsideOut Senior Writer Peter Markus. Other awards include the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry from Nimrod International, a Kresge Arts in Detroit Literary Fellowship, induction into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame, and the Antioch College Horace Mann Alumni Award for victories for humanity. After fifty years as a Detroiter, Terry moved to Connecticut to live near her son, Yale Professor Ned Blackhawk, and grandchildren.
Learn more about her poetry chapbook with Alice Greene & Co.
or visit Terry’s website.