Opal Moore

Poet Opal Moore was born on June 30, 1953 in Chicago, Illinois to Thelma and Henry Whiteurst. She graduated from Thorton Township High School, in Harvey, Illinois, in 1970. She earned her B.F.A. degree in fine art from Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois in 1974, before earning her M.A. and M.A.F. degrees in fine art and creative writing from the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa in 1981 and 1982, respectively.

In 1987, Moore was hired as an assistant professor at Radford University in Radford, Virginia, where she taught creative writing and African American literature. In 1988, her poems “Freeing Ourselves of History: The Slave Closet” and “A Poem: For Free” were published in Obsidian IICallaloo Magazine. In 2004, her poem “Eulogy for Sister” was published by the Furious Flower Poetry Center, and in 2011, her article, “Redefining the art of poetry,” was published in The Cambridge History of African American Literature.

In the summer of 1992, Moore was hired as a visiting lecturer at Kassel University in Kassel, Hessen, Germany. She continued teaching creative writing there until she was hired as a visiting professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. In 1993, Moore left Virginia Commonwealth University and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and taught at the University of Mainz in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany. In 1995, Moore was hired as a visiting professor at Hollin College in Roanoke, Virginia where she taught until 1997. In 1995. She received the Dupont Scholar Award from Hollins College and that same year, her short story “The Fence” was published in African American Review; and she joined the Furious Flower Poetry Center board of directors. In 1997, Moore joined the English department faculty at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia where, in 2013, she became the director of the honors program. She remained at Spelman until 2017.

Moore married her husband, Earl F. Picard, on March 15, 2005. They reside in Atlanta, Georgia.

Opal Moore was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on June 18, 2024.