The Paterson Poetry Prize is sponsored by The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College. It is a $2000 award for a book of poems, 48 pages or more in length, selected by our judges as the strongest collection of poems published in the previous year.
WINNERS
Mahogany L. Browne, Chrome Valley (Liveright Publishing Co., New York, NY)
“Chrome Valley is a praise song to black women, and to all that survive despite everything that tries to kill the spirit inside them. What an unforgettable book!”
Afaa M. Weaver, A Fire in the Hills (Red Hen Press, Pasadena, CA)
“Afaa M. Weaver’s book, sparks a fire in the heart. Weaver has been writing heart-wrenching, honest poems, and this book continues his tradition of making music out of sorrow and pain and finding the sweetness hidden within our daily lives.”
Comments by Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Founder & Executive Director, The Poetry Center at PCCC.
FINALISTS
Oliver de la Paz, The Diaspora Sonnets (Liveright Publishing Co., New York, NY)
Alfred Encarnacion, Precincts of the Passion-Dragon (Kelsay Books, American Fork, UT)
Jennifer Franklin, If Some God Shakes Your House (Four Way Books, New York, NY)
Jared Harél, Let Our Bodies Change the Subject (University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE)
Colleen Michaels, Prize Wheel (Small Bites Press, Beverly, MA)
Joe Weil, Saint World (Iniquity Press / Vendetta Books, Seaside Heights, NJ)