Professor of English
University of South Carolina
Ed Madden is a professor of English and director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at the University of South Carolina. In 2015, he was appointed Poet Laureate for the City of Columbia, South Carolina, a position that has allowed him a public voice on racism, the Confederate flag and other issues. Madden is the author of four books of poetry, most recently “Ark,” a memoir in poems about helping with his father’s home hospice care in his final months with cancer. His scholarship focuses on gender and sexuality in Irish and Southern cultures. A longtime community and media activist as well as poet and scholar, Madden received a Legacy Award from the Human Rights Campaign of the Carolinas for his work to improve the lives and visibility of LGBTQ people.