Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Founder & Executive Director, of The Poetry Center at PCCC says of these books:
“Joshua Bennett’s book, The Study of Human Life, captures the extraordinary in ordinary lives, and explores black experiences and relationships. This book is brilliant and moving.
Tom Sleigh’s book, The King’s Touch: Poems, is unflinching in its ability to look at and see the trauma and ugliness in the world, and yet not to despair. This book seeks to heal all that is broken and tortured, comfort all the refugees and lost people, and take us to a place where compassion is a salve that heals.”
FINALISTS
Ama Codjoe, Bluest Nude: Poems (Milkweed Editions, Minneapolis, MN)
Matthew Dickman, Husbandry (W. W. Norton & Company, New York, NY)
James Hoch, Last Pawn Shop in New Jersey (Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, LA)
Julia Lisella, Our Lively Kingdom: Poems (Bordighera Press, New York, NY)
Wesley McNair, Late Wonders: New and Selected Poems (Godine, Boston, MA)
Bianca Stone, What Is Otherwise Infinite : Poems (Tin House, Portland, OR)
SUSTAINED LITERARY EXCELLENCE AWARD
Vivian Shipley, Hindsight: 2020 (Louisiana Literature Press, Hammond, LA)
