Grace Cavalieri (born 1932) is an award-winning American poet and playwright. She has published 15 volumes of poetry and more than 20 plays and continues to actively write and publish. She lives in Annapolis, Maryland, with her husband, sculptor Kenneth Flynn. They have four grown daughters: Cynthia, Colleen, Shelley and Angela; and four grandchildren: Rachel, Elizabeth, Sean and Joseph.
Cavalieri has published 15 books, including 13 of poetry, and two of fiction. In addition, she has written numerous plays.
She co-founded the Washington Writers Publishing House with John McNally in 1976 and served on its editorial board from 1976 to 1982. In addition, she founded The Bunny and the Crocodile Press/Forest Woods Media Productions, Inc., a publishing house and media production company, in 1979.As of 2008, she still owns and operates the press.
She currently serves as a book reviewer for Montserrat Review.
Cavalieri has received numerous literary awards. Highlights include:
The Pen-Syndicated Fiction Award
The Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award
Bordighera Poetry Award, Paterson Poetry Prize
The Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry
The National Endowment for the Arts
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting Silver Medal
The National Commission on Working Women
The American Association of University Women
She has enjoyed several state arts and humanities council awards and fellowships. She received the inaugural Columbia Award from the Folger Shakespeare Library Poetry Committee for "significant contribution to poetry."
Cavalieri has had a long-term connection with public radio and public radio programming. She was a founder of radio station WPFW-FM in Washington D.C. For more than 30 years, she has produced a weekly radio show entitled the " Poet and the Poem", which is heard nationally on public radio stations around the country. The show is currently produced at the Library of Congress. In addition, she was an Associate Director of Programming at the Public Broadcasting System for five years and subsequently served as program officer of the National Endowment for the Humanities media program from 1982 to 1988.