Jaki Shelton Green
Jaki Shelton Green is an American poet. In November 2009, she was named the first Piedmont Laureate by a collection of Triangle-area arts councils. She currently resides in Mebane, North Carolina. Green teaches Documentary Poetry at Duke University within the Center for Documentary Studies. Green is a lecturer and workshop facilitator, travelling and teaching at numerous conferences and events. She was appointed North Carolina Poet Laureate in 2018 and re-appointed to the position in 2021. Early life Green was born in Alamance County, North Carolina, and grew up in Efland, North Carolina, which is in Orange County. She has said that as a child she was "fidgety" and that her grandmother gave her a writing pad, which she has credited with starting her passion for writing. Green is a graduate of the George School, which is a private Quaker boarding school in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She also has a degree in Early Childhood Education from Greater Hartford Community College in Connecticut (now Capital Community College). Personal life Green is married and has at least one daughter, Imani, who died of cancer in June 2009. SistaWRITE Green is the founder of SistaWRITE. She created the organization in order to "bring women