Brenda Marie Osbey

Brenda Marie Osbey is an author and editor working in English and French. Her seven books include All Souls: Essential Poems (Lousiana State University Press, 2015), History and Other Poems (Time Being Books, 2013) and the limited edition chapbook 1967 (William & Mary, 2018, 2019). She is the author also of a Kongo-New Orleans opera triptych, including Sultane au Grand Marais (Rites & Reason Theatre, 2011).

Edited works include features for Indiana Review, Poet Lore, War|Scapes, Illuminations and the 2016 African Poetry Book Series volume Gabriel Okara: Collected Poems, Edited and with an Introduction by Brenda Marie Osbey (APBS/University of Nebraska Press). The recipient of numerous writing and research fellowships and awards, she is the 2018-2019 Emilia Galli Struppa Fellow of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. The first peer-selected poet laureate of Louisiana (2005–07), Osbey is a native of New Orleans.