[1] Cave Canem programs include an annual summer retreat, regional workshops, first- and second-book poetry prizes, anthology publication and national readings and panels.
[4] The Foundation's name, Cave Canem, is Latin for "Beware of the Dog" and refers to a sign that Derricotte spotted while visiting the House of the Tragic Poet in the volcanic ash covered city of Pompeii.
"[2] Currently held annually at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, Pennsylvania, Cave Canem’s tuition-free retreat is a week of faculty-led writing workshops and poetry readings for African-American poets.
[9] The second is the Cave Canem Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize, a second-book award established in 2009 that "celebrates and publishes works of lasting cultural value and literary excellence" by African-American poets.
The National Book Foundation's executive director Lisa Lucas said: "Cave Canem’s innovative and effective literary activism has been transformative to the world of letters.