Danner, Margaret

Margaret Esse Danner was born on January 12, 1915 in Pryorsburg, Kentucky, to Caleb and Naomi Danner and spent most of her childhood living in Chicago, Illinois. In the eighth grade Danner won first prize for her poem titled “The Violin” which describes Guarnerius and Stradivarius violins.

After graduating from Englewood High School in Chicago, Danner attended Loyola University, Roosevelt College, Northwestern University, and YMCA College, studying under poets Paul Eagle and Karl Shapiro. In 1945 she won second place at Northwestern’s Poetry Workshop of the Midwestern Writers Conference. Danner became editorial assistant for Poetry: The Magazine of Verse in 1951 and was promoted to assistant editor in 1956, the first African-American to serve in that position.

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