Dr. Joanne V. Gabbin is founder of the Furious Flower Poetry Center, the first academic center devoted to Black poetry, named in honor of trailblazing poet, Gwendolyn Brooks. A professor of English at James Madison University (JMU), she is the author of Sterling A. Brown: Building the Black Aesthetic Tradition (1994) and a children’s book, I Bet She Called Me Sugar Plum (2004). She is also the editor of Mourning Katrina: A Poetic Response to Tragedy (2009); Shaping Memories: Reflections of African American Women Writers (2009); and Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry (2019), with co-editor Lauren K. Alleyne.

She was the director of the JMU Honors Program when she hosted the premier Furious Flower Poetry Conference in 1994, which was the first academic conference on Black poetry. She continued to invite Black poets and other scholars to the JMU campus under the auspices of the Honors Program (calling these guest lectures and readings Furious Flower events), and in 2005, after the grand success of another major Furious Flower Poetry Conference in 2004, JMU formally established the Furious Flower Poetry Center, the first and at the time only academic center devoted to Black poetry. Dr. Gabbin left her beloved position with the Honors Program to become executive director of the center. Since then and now into retirement, Gabbin has served as a visionary leader, building key relationships with scholars, poets, and corporate partners, as well as conceiving, overseeing, and fundraising for special projects and events.

Gabbin is also the executive producer of the Furious Flower video and DVD series. She is also founder and organizer of the Wintergreen Women Writers’ Collective, and owner of the 150 Franklin Street Gallery in Harrisonburg, Virginia. A dedicated teacher and scholar, she has received numerous awards for excellence in teaching, scholarship and leadership. Among them are the College Language Association Creative Scholarship Award; the SCHEV Outstanding Faculty Award; the Provost Award for Excellence; the JMU Distinguished Faculty Award; and induction in the International Literary Hall of Fame. Recently, a building at James Madison University, Joanne V. and Alexander Gabbin Hall, was named in honor of her and her husband for their outstanding contributions to the university and the community.