T236.
The Donald Justice Poetry Prize: WCU Poetry Center's Tradition of Excellence
Thursday, March 24, 2022
3:20 pm to 4:35 pm
The West Chester University Poetry Center is excited to showcase the most recent winners of the Donald Justice Prize. Since 2006, the Justice Prize has been awarded to a book-length collection of formal poetry. This panel features the work of four formalist poets from diverse backgrounds. It highlights personal and familial issues as well as national and international cultural concerns.Their masterful approach to poetic form and craft is shifting the landscape of contemporary American poetry.
Participants
Cherise A. Pollard, PhD, is director of the poetry center and professor at West Chester University. A Cave Canem and Callaloo Fellow, Pollard was awarded a grant from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. In 2015, her chapbook Outsiders won The MWC's Mississippi Valley/Susan K. Collins Chapbook Prize.
Chad Abushanab is the author of The Last Visit, winner of the Donald Justice Poetry Prize. His poems appear in the New York Times Magazine, the Believer, Best New Poets, Southern Poetry Review, Ecotone, and others. He holds a PhD in English and creative writing from Texas Tech University.
Katherine Barrett Swett has published a chapbook, Twenty-one, and a book, Voice Message, selected by Erica Dawson for the 2019 Donald Justice Poetry Prize. Recent work has appeared in Orbis (U.K.) and online in the Evergreen Review. A life-long resident of New York, she teaches high-school English.
John Foy
Alexis Sears is the author of Out of Order, winner of the 2021 Donald Justice Poetry Prize. She received her bachelor of arts degree in writing seminars at Johns Hopkins University and her MFA in poetry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has been widely published in literary journals.
