[2] In 1926, while Cuney was still a student at Lincoln University, his poem "No Images" won first prize in a competition sponsored by Opportunity magazine.

[4] After training for a career in music as a singer along with his brother who was a pianist, Cuney decided he had a poor singing voice and never performed professionally.

[4] A number of his poems have been set to music and recorded by Josh White, Al Haig, and Nina Simone.

[5] His poems were published in journals such as The Crisis and Black World, and in anthologies edited by Countee Cullen, James Weldon Johnson, Sterling Brown, and Arna Bontemps.

[2] Although his work was largely forgotten in the United States by the 1950s, it was translated into German and Dutch and developed a following in Europe.