Etheridge Knight

Etheridge Knight was born on April 19, 1931, in Corinth, Mississippi. In 1960, he was arrested for robbery and sentenced to eight years in the Indiana State Prison. During this time, he began writing poetry, and he corresponded with and received visits from such established African American literary figures as Dudley Randall and Gwendolyn Brooks. Randall’s Broadside Press published Poems from Prison (1968), Knight’s first book, one year before his release from prison. The book was a success, and Knight soon joined such poets as Amiri Baraka, Haki Madhubuti, and Sonia Sanchez (to whom he was once married) in what came to be called the Black Arts Movement. Etheridge Knight died in 1991. (Source)