Renee Nicole Good was an award-winning poet and a Creative Writing graduate of Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, where she completed her degree in 2020. Her work was widely recognized for its emotional depth and intellectual honesty. In 2020, her poem “On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs” earned the Academy of American Poets Prize at ODU, as well as the university’s Undergraduate Poetry Award.

Judges praised the poem for weaving together memory, belief, and scientific learning. In one passage, Good reflects on that balance:

“can i let them both be?

this fickle faith and this college science

that heckles from the back of the classroom…”

Her poetry remains public, and her voice continues to inspire readers. Old Dominion University honored her legacy, calling her passing the “loss of one of our own.”

(Photo: Renee Nicole Good)