Bio
Lita Hooper is a poet, photographer, film producer and educator. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, including Crux: Conversations in Words and Images from South Africa to South USA, The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, Gathering Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem First Decade, Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art, and Tempu Tumpu/walking Naked: African Women’s Poetic Self-portrait. She is the author of two chapbooks, Legacy and The Journal of Sojourner Truth, and a critical biography, Art of Work: The Art and Work of Haki Madhubuti. Her work has also been published in online and print journals and magazines, including poetrymidwest, Drumvoices Revue, Essence Magazine and Pluck!
Ms. Hooper earned a BA from DePaul University in Communications, an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Colorado, and a DA in English and Humanities from Clark Atlanta University. She is currently an Associate Professor of English at Georgia Perimeter College.
She also produces dramatic productions of her work. "The Journal of Sojourner Truth" was produced at Georgia Perimeter College and airs on Atlanta Public Forum as well as public broadcasting stations. Her short film projects include Sidewalk Stories, a PeopleTV production, and a promotional film for a private school.
In 2007 Ms. Hooper’s poem “Love Worn” was selected for the American Life in Poetry Series, which has a circulation of 1 million readers. The recipient of the 2007 Emerging Artist Grant from the City of Atlanta’s Office of Cultural Affairs, Ms. Hooper has been a featured reader at various colleges, including Morehouse College, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Spelman College. She is the founding member of the Baobab Poetry Collective, which is supported by the Fulton County Arts Council’s Southwest Arts Center in Atlanta, GA. Ms. Hooper was selected for the Emerging Writers Fine Letterpress Workshop at the Center for Book Arts in New York. She has also produced staged readings of her chapbook The Journal of Sojourner Truth.
In addition to reading and publishing, Ms. Hooper conducts poetry workshops and provides editing services for individuals seeking help with manuscripts.