Ariana Benson

Ariana Benson was born in Norfolk, Virginia. She graduated from Spelman College and holds MA degrees in both poetic practice and scriptwriting, which she earned as a Marshall Scholar.

Benson’s debut collection, Black Pastoral (University of Georgia Press, 2023), won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the John Leonard Prize for Best First Book, presented by the National Book Critics Circle. A Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellow, Benson has also received the Furious Flower Poetry Prize and the Graybeal-Gowen Prize for Virginia Poets.

Benson facilitates creative writing and storytelling workshops for students at historically Black colleges and universities.