Literature
Toi Derricotte
born 1941 · poet, memoirist, teacher
Frost Medal–winning poet and co-founder of Cave Canem, born in Hamtramck and educated in Detroit, whose first book came out from Detroit's Lotus Press.
- Born
Hamtramck, Michigan
age 85- Birth name
- Toinette Webster
- Detroit years
- 1941–1960s
- Field
- Literature
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Derricotte was born Toinette Webster in Hamtramck, the enclave city inside Detroit, the only child of a Creole mother from Louisiana and a father who became an embalmer. She grew up Catholic in Detroit, graduated from Girls Catholic Central High School in 1959 and studied at Wayne State University, earning a degree in special education in 1965 after her studies were interrupted by an early marriage and motherhood. She worked in Detroit before moving to New York and New Jersey. Her first collection, The Empress of the Death House (1978), was published by Naomi Long Madgett's Lotus Press in Detroit. Her memoir The Black Notebooks explores life as a light-skinned Black woman, and in 1996 she co-founded Cave Canem, now the country's leading home for Black poets.
Highlights
- Co-founder of Cave Canem (1996) with Cornelius Eady
- Frost Medal (2020) and Wallace Stevens Award (2021)
- First book published by Detroit's Lotus Press (1978)
- The Undertaker's Daughter (2011) recalls her Detroit childhood
- Wayne State University graduate (1965)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · 1959–1965
Wayne State University
She studied psychology, then special education, graduating in 1965.