DeeSoul Carson
Poet | Educator
Brooklyn, NY
deesoulpoetry [at] gmail [dot] com
Image: Nicholas Nichols | Scroll Down for MoreEducation
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Sept 2021 – May 2024
Current graduate student in the NYU Creative Writing Program’s poetry MFA program.
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Sept 2017 – June 2021
B.A. in Psychology with a specialization in Mind, Culture, and Society, as well as a minor in Creative Writing
Teaching/Workshop Experience
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Program Administrator, College & Career Lab
June 2023 — Present
As one of two full-time staff members in the office, aided in the streamlining of the communications plan and communicate regularly with NYU staff, faculty, and external partners to coordinate the logistics of monthly learning sessions for our middle- and high-school students. Helped manage a group of 48 rising 8th-grade students over four weeks in Summer 2023. Helping to develop lesson plans and curriculum that will serve as the foundation of the lab’s six-year learning experience.
Adjunct Course Instructor
Jan 2022 — May 2022
Courses Taught:
• Learning the Rules to Break the Rules: Intro to Prose and Poetry (CRWRI-UA.815.019)
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Educational Assistant
Sep 2021 — Jun 2022
Worked with four classes of third and fourth-grade students at a Queens, NY public school on poems that we compiled into an anthology at the end of a 20-week residency.
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Editorial Assitant
Aug 2020 — Dec 2021
Organized and maintained the scheduling of meetings between leaders of the organization, as well as the distribution of the monthly staff newsletter and any miscellaneous tasks assigned by my superior.
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Co-Director ('19-'21)
Sep 2017 — Jun 2021
Led and maintained a group of 16 poets on campus, regularly offering free writing workshops and quarterly spoken word performances to the general community.
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Student Course Instructor
Jan 2019 — Mar 2020
Courses Taught:
• Poetry and Performance
• Penning Poems We're Proud Of
Anthologized Poems
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Poemhood: Our Black Revival, HarperCollins
“Moon Wants In On the Groove”
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Between My Body and the Air, YouthSpeaks and First Words Press
“I Think of My Grandmother, Still Waking” “Poem of Numerous Things Unspoken” “And When They Finally Hand Me a Name”
Published Poems
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LOVE IS THE CHARGE, HOW DO YOU PLEAD | Hooligan Mag
Looking at the Backyard Magnolia Tree | Hooligan Mag
If You Broke, Just Say That | Waxwing Mag
Lampyridology | Waxwing Mag
The Activity of Small Beasts | Waxwing Mag
The Laughing Barrel (Sonnets III, IV, VII, VIII) | Waxwing Mag
California Dreamin’ | Waxwing Mag
Burning Bush Psalm | Waxwing Mag
Epistemology | Waxwing Mag
Anthropocene | Waxwing Mag
Before | Waxwing Mag
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Exhibition of a Dying City | VIBE
Black History Month (as Told by my Spam Folder) [BAPE] | Muzzle Mag
My waking is a protest I march every morning, | Dialogist
On the M Train to Myrtle/Broadway | Brooklyn Poets
Black History Month (as Told by my Spam Folder) | The Offing
What if, today, we are not what we are | Fine Print Press
Daydreaming | Narrative Magazine
golden shovel at the shore of lake lanier | Hayden’s Ferry Review
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Genesis | Poetry.Onl
What's Going On | Voicemail Poems
In The Mourning | Half Mystic
Self-Portrait in a '99 Cadillac de Ville | No Tokens
Ode to Dirt-Blacked Nails | Neighbor News
Church Cousins | The CookOut Literary Journal (Prize Finalist)
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Ode to Telefone | Half Mystic
pineapple upside down cake | Poetically Magazine
A Classmate Uses a Word I’ve Never Heard Before as a Poem Title | Sienna Solstice
The Negro Paints a Sunset ; Self-Portrait as Sticky Notes | Leland Quarterly
Nothing Blacker than my Bank Account | Pigeon Pages NYC (Prize Winner)
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Elegy for Black Boys Still Breathing | StanfordLive Magazine
Hood Proverbs ; I dream of a darker planet. | Ex/Post Magazine
Poem Always Having to Repeat Itself | The Adroit Journal
Dog Days ; Forgive Me If I Say | Dishsoap Quarterly
Captain’s Log | Oakland Arts Review
This Poem Has Already Forgotten Its Name | Sienna Solstice
Vignettes of Pandemic and Protest | The Pandemic Post
transit | SONKU
Someone Told Me Once the Philly Pride Flag is ‘Aesthetically Displeasing’ ; Mother Keeps Us on a Merry-Go-Round | Leland Quarterly
Selected Performances
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Dream Journal (after Danez Smith) | Button Poetry
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Hood Proverbs | Testimony, a Kronos Quartet Production
Captain’s Log | Button Poetry
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Black Matter (w/ Ace Smith) | Write About Now Poetry
Awards & Fellowships
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2024 NYU Threesis Academic Challenge - 1st Place Winner
2024 Pushcart Prize Nominee for “On the M Train to Myrtle/Broadway” (Brooklyn Poets)
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2022 The Watering Hole Writing Workshop Graduate Fellow
2022 Ploughshares Emerging Writer's Contest Honorable Mention
2022 Palette Poetry Previously Published Prize Finalist
2022 Write About Now Poetry's The Cookout Literary Prize Finalist
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Best of the Net Nominee (Pigeon Pages NYC)
Pathos Labs PopShift Narrative Impact Fellow
Planet Earth Arts Creative Writing Prize
Pigeon Pages NYC Poetry Prize
Foglifter Journal Start a Riot! Chapbook Prize Semifinalist
2021-22 NYU Writer in the Public Schools Fellow
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Button Poetry Video Contest Finalist
Stanford ORSL Meeting the Moment Fellow
California Relief Grant for Artists and Cultural Practitioners Grant Recipient
Adroit Prize for Poetry Semifinalist
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College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational Co-Finalist, 2018 (2nd Place) & 2019 (3rd Place)