Cave Canem Foundation is an American 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1996 by poets Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady to remedy the underrepresentation and isolation of African-American poets in Master of Fine Arts (MFA) programs and writing workshops across the United States. It is based in Brooklyn, New York.^[1]

Cave Canem programs include an annual summer retreat, regional workshops, first- and second-book poetry prizes, anthology publication and national readings and panels. The organization has also published two anthologies, Gathering Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem’s First Decade, edited by Derricotte and Eady (University of Michigan Press, 2006), and The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, edited by Nikky Finney (University of Georgia Press, 2007).

In September 2016, National Book Foundation awarded Cave Canem the Literarian Award for service to the American literary community.^[1]

Founded in 1996 by poets Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady,^[2] Cave Canem Foundation began as a week-long writing retreat for selected African-American poets at Mount St. Alphonsus Conference Center in Esopus, New York. According to Derricotte, the idea grew out of previous attempts she had made to create programs supporting Black poets at New York University in the early 1980s and University of Pittsburgh in the early 1990s; she shared her vision with Eady and Sarah Micklem, which led to the St. Alphonsus retreat.^[3] Since then, Cave Canem "has grown from an initial gathering of 26 poets to become an influential movement with a renowned faculty and a high-achieving national fellowship" of over 300.^[4] The Foundation's name, Cave Canem, is Latin for "Beware of the Dog" and refers to a sign that Derricotte spotted while visiting the House of the Tragic Poet in the volcanic ash covered city of Pompeii.^[1] Derricotte retired as co-director in 2015.^[3]

Writing for The New York Times in 2015, Stephen Burt described Cave Canem as "a major incubator for the current renaissance in black poetry, which includes the poets Tracy K. Smith, who won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in poetry; Afaa Michael Weaver, who won the Kingsley Tufts prize last year; and, most recently, Claudia Rankine, who won the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry this year."^[2]

In 2016, Cave Canem became the first organization (rather than individual) to win the National Book Foundation's Literarian Award for service to the American literary community. The National Book Foundation's executive director Lisa Lucas said: "Cave Canem’s innovative and effective literary activism has been transformative to the world of letters. Their ongoing commitment to provide supportive channels for African American poets to thrive has yielded works that enrich the world’s literary culture."^[1]

• 2006: Gathering Ground: a Reader Celebrating Cave Canem's First Decade ISBN 9780472099245 OCLC 62133808
• 2007: The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South ISBN 9780820329253 OCLC 71369370

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