Poetry Foundation Announces the 2022 Ruth Lilly & Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellows

CHICAGO, September 22, 2022—The Poetry Foundation announces the 2022 Ruth Lilly & Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellows are: Tarik Dobbs, Diamond Forde, Tariq Luthun, Troy Osaki, and Alan Pelaez Lopez. Each poet receives a $25,800 prize, making the fellowships among the largest and most prestigious awards available for young poets in the United States.

The fellowship program recognizes outstanding young poets, providing support early in their careers to encourage the further study and writing of poetry in the form of their choosing. 
“It is a distinct pleasure to celebrate these talented young poets, who are already so committed to bringing poetry forward,” said Michelle T. Boone, president of the Poetry Foundation. “Their dedication to poetry extends beyond their own writing, into their communities as editors, organizers, and peer mentors. Congratulations, one and all!”

Introducing the 2022 Fellows

Tarik Dobbs is a disabled, SWANA American writer and artist. Dobbs’s debut collections NAZAR BOY and DEARBORNISTAN are forthcoming from Haymarket Books, and their chapbook, Dancing on the Tarmac, was selected by Gabrielle Calvocoressi as the 2020 Yemassee Chapbook Prize winner. Their poems are anthologized in Best New Poets 2021 and Best of the Net 2020, and they are an MFA fellow in Art, Theory, Practice at Northwestern University. 

The author of the 2019 Saturnalia Poetry Prize-winning collection Mother Body, Diamond Forde's honors include a Margaret Walker Memorial Prize, a Furious Flower Poetry Prize, and a Pink Poetry Prize. Forde received her PhD in Creative Writing from Florida State University in 2022, and has received fellowships from Callaloo and Tin House, and her work has appeared in Ninth Letter, and Tupelo Quarterly, among others. She is the fiction editor at Nat. Brut, and serves as the interviews editor for Honey Literary.

Tariq Luthun is a community organizer, data engineer, and Emmy Award-winning poet. The son of Palestinian Muslim immigrants from Gaza, he earned his MFA in Poetry from Warren Wilson College. He serves as a board member of The Offing, and collaborates with organizations like the Glia Project, Visualizing Palestine, and Detroit Disability Power. Luthun’s work has been published in Crab Orchard Review, Literary Hub, Mizna, and Vinyl Poetry, among others. His honors include being named Best of the Net in 2018, and fellowships from Kundiman and the Kresge Foundation. Luthun's work was awarded Editors' Selection by Bull City Press, leading to the 2020 debut of his collection, How The Water Holds Me.

The grandson of Filipino immigrants and the great-grandson of Japanese immigrants, Troy Osaki is a poet, organizer, and attorney. Osaki is a three-time grand slam poetry champion, and has earned fellowships from Hugo House, Jack Straw Cultural Center, and Kundiman. His poetry has appeared in Muzzle Magazine, Poetry Northwest, and Tinderbox Poetry Journal, among others. He holds a Juris Doctor degree from the Seattle University School of Law where he interned at Creative Justice, an arts-based alternative to incarceration for youth in King County. 

Alan Pelaez Lopez, PhD, is an AfroIndigenous poet, installation, and adornment artist from Oaxaca, México. They are the author of Intergalactic Travels: poems from a fugitive alien and to love and mourn in the age of displacement. Pelaez Lopez’s honors include nominations for a Pushcart Prize and “Best of the Net,” as well as fellowships and/or residencies from the Museum of the African Diaspora and Brown University. Their work has been published in Best American Experimental Writing 2020, Poetry, and Teen Vogue, among others.

The 2022 Fellowship finalists were Gabrielle Bates, Tianna Bratcher, torrin a. greathouse, Ae Hee Lee, Peter Mason, Cindy Juyoung Ok, and Julian Randall.

2022 Decision Process
Each application to the 2022 Fellowships was first read by two of 28 members of an external readers pool. A group of five external judges read all of the top evaluated applications to select this group of 12 finalists, then discussed the finalists and selected the winning applicants.

The Poetry Foundation would like to thank the following readers and judges for their time and careful consideration, and for being part of this new process.

Diego Báez
JoAnn Balingit
Kay Ulanday Barrett
Destiny O. Birdsong
Kimberly Blaeser
Paul Hlava Ceballos
Dorothy Chan
Marianne Chan
Cathy Linh Che
Michael Dowdy
Renee Gladman
Noor Hindi
Richie Hofmann
Ben Kline
E.J. Koh
Eugenia Leigh
Rajiv Mohabir
Marty McConnell
Kristen Renee Miller
Lupe Mendez
Margaret Noodin
Sasha Pimentel
Oli Rodriguez
Jacob Saenz
Charif Shanahan
Shook
Nathan Spoon
Jennifer Steele
TC Tolbert
Jacqueline Allen Trimble
Vanessa Angélica Villarreal
Donna Aza Weir-Soley
Orlando White

Questions and comments about the Fellowships can be directed to [email protected].

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About the Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation recognizes the power of words to transform lives. We work to amplify poetry and celebrate poets by fostering spaces for all to create, experience, and share poetry. Follow the Poetry Foundation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and Poetry at @PoetryMagazine.

Media Contacts
Liz O’Connell-Thompson, Media Manager, [email protected], 312.799.8065