Lenard D. Moore

Lenard D. Moore, founder and executive director of the Carolina African American Writers’ Collective, has had poems, essays, and reviews published in several journals and newspapers. He also is co-founder of the Washington Street Writers Group and executive chairman of the North Carolina Haiku Society. His poetry has appeared in more than one hundred anthologies, including 27 Views of Raleigh, The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume VII: North Carolina; Obsession: Sestinas in the Twenty-First Century; Villanelles; Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry; The Bedford Introduction to Literature; and The Haiku Anthology. His poetry has been translated into more than a dozen languages. His most recent book is A Temple Looming. He is a recipient of the North Carolina Award for Literature (2014), the Raleigh Medal of the Arts for Lifetime Achievement (2008), the Sam Ragan Award in the Fine Arts (2006), the Haiku Museum of Tokyo Award (2003, 1994, and 1983), the Tar Heel of the Week Award (1998), the Margaret Walker Creative Writing Award (1997), and the Indies Arts Award (1996), among others. He is a Cave Canem Graduate Fellow (1998–2000) and a Soul Mountain Fellow (2007). Mr. Moore is an associate professor of English at the University of Mount Olive, where he teaches Advanced Poetry Writing and African American Literature and directs the university’s literary festival.

Ten Things I Can’t Do Without

1. Faith
2. Food
3. Family
4. Friends
5. Love
6. Reading
7. Music
8. Natural world
9. Art/poetry
10. Hope