Cave Canem is a nonprofit organization founded by Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady in 1996 to remedy the underrepresentation and isolation of African-American poets in the literary landscape. That year, Cave Canem welcomed the inaugural cohort of Fellows to our Retreatâa residency of intensive poetry workshops and readings, which offers an unparalleled opportunity to join a community of peers and study with a faculty of renowned poetsâat Mount St. Alphonsus Seminary, in Esopus, New York. Since 2003, the University of Pittsburgh | Greensburg has hosted the flagship program. Cave Canem Fellowships have supported more than 500 poets, many of whom have gone on to distinguished literary careers, including winners of the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize, recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship, and Poets Laureate. In 2016, Cave Canem received the National Book Foundationâs Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.