African-American Women Accept Year’s Major Poetry Awards

Listen to NPR for an in-depth story, interviews, and excerpts. Meanwhile, congratulations to the winners:

Lucille Clifton, 2007 Ruth Lilly Prize

From the USINFO site: “Clifton has added enormously to the representation of the African-American experience in poetry and has been a kind of historical consciousness for her people and a public consciousness for us all,” the judges said… Clifton, 71, is the first black woman to win the Lilly Prize, which was established in 1986 and is presented annually by the Poetry Foundation. Previous winners include such well-known poets as Adrienne Rich, John Ashbery, Donald Hall, Yusef Komunyakaa, and last year’s winner, Richard Wilbur.”

Clifton, poet laureate of Maryland from 1974-85, has authored 11 books of poetry and quite a number children’s books. The Lilly Prize recognizes lifetime achievement.

Natasha Trethewey, 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry

From Pulitzer’s site: “Growing up in the Deep South, Natasha Trethewey was never told that in her hometown of Gulfport, Mississippi, black soldiers had played a pivotal role in the Civil War. Off the coast, on Ship Island, stood a fort that had once been a Union prison housing Confederate captives. Protecting the fort was the second regiment of the Louisiana Native Guards – one of the Union’s first official black units. Trethewey’s new book of poems pays homage to the soldiers who served and whose voices have echoed through her own life.”

Trethewey, who teaches creative writing at Emory University, won the award for Native Guard.

Tracy K. Smith, 2006 James Laughlin Award (from Academy of American Poets)

From her publisher’s Web site: “Graywolf Press is delighted to announce that poet Tracy K. Smith’s book Duende (Graywolf Press, 2007) has been selected by Elizabeth Alexander, Kimiko Hahn, and Terrance Hayes to receive the 2006 James Laughlin Award, a $5,000 prize that recognizes and supports a poet’s second book.”

Author of two books of poetry and recipient of numerous awards, Smith teaches at Princeton University.

Elizabeth Alexander, 2007 Jackson Poetry Prize (from Poets & Writers Magazine)

From Poets & Writers: “The $50,000 prize honors an American poet of exceptional talent who has published at least one book of recognized literary merit but has not yet received major national acclaim. The award is designed to provide what all poets need-time and the encouragement to write.”

Alexander is a professor at Yale University and author of four books of poetry, including American Sublime, a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize.