PSA's 2020 Norma Farber, Shelley Memorial, and William Carlos Williams Awards Announced

Poetry Society of America announced the recipients of this year's Norma Farber Award, Shelley Memorial Award, and William Carlos Williams Award, and they are, respectively: Zaina Alsous, Rick Barot, and Martha Collins! From Matthew Shenoda's citation about Alsous, author of A Theory of Birds (University of Arkansas Press, 2019) and winner of the Norma Farber Award, which honors a first book:  

In Zaina Alsous’ A Theory of Birds we are ushered into a re-calibration of the world, one intent on the eradication of that which has been oppressive and divisive. In these poems history unravels us in fragments, causing us to fold ourselves into a new definition of “self” and an unabashed rejection of our positions as “subjects.” The poems found here are an honest and open exploration of how we come into a sense of our own understanding in a postcolonial world. Alsous’ poems are driven by the asking, often posing sentient questions like “who translated kings and not birds?"; questions that cause us to think of redefinition. And while her poems are searing in their critiques of political, racial, and gendered domination, like all good artists she is poignant in her ability to implicate herself at every turn…

Read further judges' citations at PSA. All three award recipients have also been published in Poetry magazine. Visit the magazine's digital archive to read samples of each poet's work.