Poet and playwright Cornelius Eady was born on January 7, 1954, in Rochester, New York. He attended Monroe Community College and Empire State College. Eady is the author of numerous collections of poetry, including Hardheaded Weather, a nominee for an NAACP Image Award; Brutal Imagination, which was a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award; The Gathering of My Name, which was nominated for the 1992 Pulitzer Prize; and Victims of the Latest Dance Craze, selected by Louise Glück, Charles Simic, and Philip Booth for the 1985 Lamont Poetry Selection of The Academy of American Poets. In 1996, Eady and the poet Toi Derricotte founded Cave Canem, a nonprofit organization serving Black poets of various backgrounds and acting as a safe space for intellectual engagement and critical debate.