- May 13, 2021
- By Maryland Today Staff
Poet, lawyer and activist Reginald Dwayne Betts ’09 has been named one of Fortune magazine’s “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders.” Last year, in conjunction with The Andrew Mellon Foundation and Yale Law School, Betts launched the Million Book Project, which brings books to prisons and juvenile detention centers in the United States.
Starting at age 16, Betts served eight years in prison for his role in an armed carjacking. There, he discovered reading and writing as an outlet for his thoughts. After his release, he earned an undergraduate degree in English at the University of Maryland, followed by an MFA at Warren Wilson College and a J.D. at Yale Law School, where he is now pursuing a Ph.D. He has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and is the author of several acclaimed books of poetry, including his most recent release, “Felon.”
Read more about Betts’ life and career in Terp magazine.