Regular Faculty

Summary of Expertise

Black Diasporic Poetics; 20th and 21st Century African American Poetry and Visual Culture; Contemporary US Experimental and Received Poetry and Poetics; Black Feminist Theories, Queer Theories; Autobiographical Narratives; Asian Diasporic Imaginaries; Creative and Critical Practices in Visual, Sound Art and Performance via Writing, Drawing, Song, Collage, Printmaking, Video, Photography, Dance, and Improvisation; Research and Studies in Poetry, Prose, Plays, Interviews, Curation, and Collaborations (as hybrid and distinct forms) via Text, Image, Archives, and Ephemera.  

Biography, Education and Training

Education:

2009 Ph.D., English, CUNY Graduate Center

1995 M.A., Poetry, New York University Graduate Creative Writing Program 

1991 A.B., English, University of California, Berkeley

Biography:

Ronaldo V. Wilson is an award-winning poet, interdisciplinary artist, academic and author of six collections of hybrid and experimental works spanning poetry, fiction, mixed genre theory, performance, digital, sound, and visual art.  He has performed in multiple venues, including Casa Victoria Ocampo in Buenos Aires, The Center for African American Poetry and Poetics, Georgetown’s Lannan Center, Harvard’s Woodberry Poetry Room, Louisiana State University’s Digital Media Center Theater, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Pulitzer Arts Foundation, and The Studio Museum in Harlem. The recipient of numerous fellowships, including Cave Canem, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Ford Foundation, Kundiman, MacDowell, The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and Yaddo. His interdisciplinary works appears in places such as The Black Scholar, BOMB Magazine, GLQ: A Journal of Gay and Lesbian Studies, LA Review of Books Quarterly, Harriet Poetry Blog, Interim Journal, Michigan Quarterly Review, and the Journal of Black Mountain College Studies. He’s held solo and group exhibits at the The Center for Art and Thought, Hanes Art Gallery at Wake Forest University, Miller ICA Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University, and the Emily Harvey Foundation.

Books:

Virgil Kills: Stories (Nightboat Books, 2022).

Carmelina: Figures (Wendy’s Subway, 2021).

Lucy 72 (1913 Press, 2018).  

Farther Traveler: Poetry, Prose, Other (Counterpath Press, 2015).

Poems of the Black Object (Futurepoem Books, 2009).

Narrative of the Life of the Brown Boy and the White Man (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008).

Chapbooks:

Sound and Fury / Blunt Object. Claudia Rankine and Ronaldo V. Wilson. Greater New York: Readers Series, Greater New York at MoMA PS1 October 11, 2015. March 7, 2016. MoMA/ PS1. D.A.P/ Distributed Art Publishers. www.artbook.com, 2016.

Virgil Kills: Stories from the Conservation of Mass. EP 101. Online Chapbook. (Essay Press, 2018).

https://issuu.com/essaypress/docs/wilson_virgil

Honors, Awards and Grants

2024 Artist Residency, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. 

2021 and 2017 MacDowell Interdisciplinary Artist Fellowships. 

(2018 Fellowship: National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Award for the MacDowell Colony Residency in 2017) 

2010 Poetry Award: Asian American Literature Award in Poetry, The Asian American 

Writer’s Workshop. Poems of the Black Object (Futurepoem Books, 2009). 

2010 Poetry Award: Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry, The Publishing Triangle, Poems of the Black Object (Futurepoem Books, 2009). 

2007 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, Narrative of the Life of the Brown Boy and the White Man. 

(University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008).  

2005 Yaddo, Fellowship in Poetry. 

1999-2000 Writing Fellow in Poetry, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown.

Selected Publications

Interview/Video:

“Seven (+) Questions for Ronaldo V. Wilson. Interview with Soham Patel,” The Georgia Review. October 30, 2018. https://www.thegeorgiareview.com/posts/seven-questions-with-ronaldo-v-wilson

“Lucy and Surely,” Journal of Black Mountain College Studies. Volume 11: The Practice and Pedagogy of Writing at Black Mountain College (Fall 2020) http://www.blackmountainstudiesjournal.org/lucy-and-surely

Poetry/Prose/Visual Arts:

“UPON Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America, New Museum, New York, 2021. / DOUBLE SONNET after A.J., C.S.D., C.G., J.B., D.R., P.C., M.B., K.G., K.W., M.E., K.B., E.G., M.D. & R.S. for Okwui Enwezor.”  Poem-a-Day on July 28, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets. https://poets.org/poem/upon-grief-and-grievance-art-and-mourning-america-new-museum-new-york-2021-double-sonnet-after

“Lucy and RVW in the Studio,” Interim Vol 35 Issue 3. Online. July 22, 2018. https://www.interimpoetics.org/35-3/ronaldo-v-wilson-1

“47. Lucy and Shadow,” “49. Lucy, The Grey Cat, and Sense,” “65. Lucy Looks,” “67. Lucy Gets Into the Mist,” “68. Lucy Lets in the Light,” “69. Lucy and Loss,” Oversound, Issue 2, Spring 2016.

https://www.oversoundpoetry.com/ronaldo-v-wilson-six-poems/

Edited Journals:

Gender Queer/Genre Queer Playground (Special Issue), Guest Ed. Ronaldo V. Wilson. Obsidian Literature and Arts in the African Disapora. Vol. 48.2, May 2023. 

Black The [Or] Y: Praxis, Sum Unknown. Ed. Ronaldo V. Wilson. Interim Journal, Vol. 38. Issue 4, December, 2021. https://www.interimpoetics.org/384-1

On Black Aliveness. Ed. Ronaldo V. Wilson. Interim Journal, Vol. 37. Issues 3-4. December, 2020.  https://www.interimpoetics.org/3734

Selected Presentations

“Eileen Myles, Tomas Vu, Ronaldo V. Wilson,” Fine Arts Work Center Faculty Reading, Provincetown, MA., August 8, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdeBY0JhKtw

“Pure Graphite” and “Everybody,” A Provocation. Woodberry Poetry Room, Harvard University, October 16, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50kr5tz42HM

Selected Exhibitions

Ronaldo V. Wilson “Be Mine: Between the Sand and Sky,” Writings, Drawings, Video, and Performance, Hanes Art Gallery, Wake Forest University, February 12-February 22, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k235J3X3diM

Six Drawings for D.L.W.: “There. 2020. Charcoal, pure graphite, water soluble pastels on mixed media paper, 14 x 17 in.,”  “Forehand, Still Life. 2020. Charcoal, pure graphite, water soluble pastels on mixed media paper, 14 x 17 in.,” “There you go. 2020. Charcoal, pure graphite, pen, water soluble pastels on mixed media paper, 14 x 17 in..”“How ‘bout that. 2020. Pen, water soluble pastels, and gouache on mixed media paper, 14 x 17 in.,” “Look at me when I’m talking to you. 2020. Pen, water soluble pastels, and gouache on mixed media paper, 14 x 17 in.,” “Dad. 2020. Pen, water soluble pastels, and gouache on mixed media paper, 14 x 17 in,”. Online Folio: SOMAFLIGHTS, MQR Issue 62:2, Spring 23. https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/mqr/2023/04/six-drawings-for-d-l-w/

"Fractions of Ourselves in the Timespan of the Universe: Ronaldo V. Wilson and jaamil olawale kosoko in Conversation," Critical Correspondence Movement Research, September 6, 2022. http://movementresearch.org/publications/critical-correspondence/ronaldo-v-wilson-and-jaamil-olawale-kosoko-in-conversation/

Selected Recordings

Zucker, Rachel. Commonplace Blog Episode 120 and 121: “Fred Moten and Ronaldo V. Wilson,” December 27, 2023.

https://commonplace.today/commonplace-podcast/episode-120-moten-wilson?rq=fred%20moten

Selected Performances

“AVATAR | LUCY” in Conversation with Gary Simmons’s Recapturing Images of the Black Arc, Southern Exposure Gallery, April 20, 2017. https://vimeo.com/238137782

Ronaldo V. Wilson Performance in Conversation with Carl Pope and Mari Evans; Part of the Exhibition Carl Pope: Mari Evans. Big Car Collective, Tube Factory Art Space. Indianapolis, IN. Video. January, 2017. https://vimeo.com/342483583

“Fred Moten and Ronaldo V. Wilson,” Poetry Reading and Performance. Poetry Project. NY, NY. May 24, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qs4pcr2aHo