About Etheridge Knight

Etheridge Knight moved to Indianapolis after his military service in the Korean War, where he was discharged due to shrapnel wounds. In 1960, he was convicted of armed robbery and spent eight years in Indiana State Prison, during which he began writing poetry. His first collection, Poems from Prison (1968), marked a profound personal transformation. Knight became a celebrated poet, receiving major accolades from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Poetry Society of America, and earning nominations for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Despite his national recognition, he remained deeply connected to the Indianapolis community. In the 1980s, he was a regular at the Chatterbox on Mass Ave, where he engaged in poetry discussions over jazz and Budweiser. Knight died in Indianapolis on March 10, 1991, and is buried in Crown Hill Cemetery.