Chezia Thompson Cager is the director of the reading series, Spectrum of Poetic Fire.

A Maryland State Arts Council Individual Award recipient for 1999 and 2001, a 1996 Artscape Poetry competition winner (selected by Josephine Jacobsen), a 2002 finalist for the Naomi Madget Long Poetry Award at Lotus Press, and Atlantic Center for the arts and Bread Loaf grant 2002 recipient, Dr. Thompson has published work in a wide range of poetry journals that recently include: Gargoyle, Potomac Review, Poet Lore, Maryland Poetry Review, Poetry New Zealand and Puerto Del Sol. She has 2 Chapbooks including Artscape winner Power Objectives and a book published by Maisonneuve Press - The Presence of Things Unseen: Giant Talk and a compilation project called When Divas Laugh, which she edited from the Diva Squad Poetry Collective available through Black Classic Press. Her poems appear in the following anthologies: From Totems to Hip Hop edited by Ishmael Reed (2003); Catch the Fire edited by Derrick I. Gilbert; Dark Eros edited by Reginald Martin; Thy Mothers Glass edited by Diane Scharper; and Moving Beyond Boundaries edited by Boyce-Davies and Ogundipe-Leslie.