Malcolm Tariq is the program director for the Prison and Justice Writing Program at PEN America. Previously, he served as the programs manager for Cave Canem, where he curated public events, directed three book prizes and the Cave Canem Fellowship, and in partnership with the EcoTheo Collective developed the Starshine and Clay Fellowship for emerging Black poets. He has also worked in communications and development for the Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services and The Friends School of Atlanta, and was a Public Humanities Fellow at the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Tariq is the author of Heed the Hollow (Graywolf Press, 2019), winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize and the Georgia Author of the Year Award, and Extended Play (Gertrude Press, 2017). He was a 2020-2021 resident playwright with Liberation Theatre Company, and his work has been supported by Horizon Theatre Company, Working Title Playwrights, and Brave New Worlds Repertory Theatre. As a writer and scholar, he has received fellowships from The Watering Hole, the Social Science Research Council, and Imagining America. A graduate of Emory University, Tariq holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Michigan. He is in the 2021-2022 Core Certificate Program cohort with the Institute for Nonprofit Practice.