Allison Joseph

Attending a college basketball game isn't just recreation for writer Allison Joseph. Like many compelling images from everyday life, it inspires her poetry.

Allison is an Associate Professor of English at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and editor of the Crab Orchard Review, a biannual literary publication. She's also a Salukis basketball fan, along with her husband and fellow English professor, Jon Tribble. Her witty ode to their shared passion, "For the Love of the Game," mixes courtside imagery with romantic and sensual longing, and demonstrates her gift for word play.

Memories of growing up in New York City with parents of Caribbean heritage fill Allison's poetry. In five published collections and countless individual poems, she illuminates her Bronx neighborhood, her family struggles, love relationships and friendship. She paints rich character portraits in plain language with her trademark honesty and insight. As an educator, she opens young minds to the joys of language, and as an artist-in-residence at the RopeWalk Artists Retreat in New Harmony, Indiana, she finds nourishment in the company of other writers exploring their craft. Photography on this page courtesy of Amanda Whitlock.

Learn More About the Other Artists in Beauty Rises: Orbert Davis
Dessa Kirk
Laura Wiley

Bonus Material

Allison Joseph on: GROWING UP AND COLLEGE

TEACHING, WRITING AND POETRY

GWENDOLYN BROOKS AND INSPIRATION

JON AND THE CRAB ORCHARD REVIEW

Read Body of Work by Allison Joseph, a poem she wrote after watching Beauty Rises for the first time.

Related Links

Visit the Crab Orchard Review website.

Read Unblinking , a 2003 article about Allison.

Find out more about the Young Writer's Workshop at SIU, a summer writer's conference for high school students founded by Allison.