|
Barnard
College Poetry Prize Goes One More Step: W.W. Norton To Publish
2003 Barnard Women Poets Prize, Rebecca Wolff’s
Figment
 New
York, NY— Barnard College, in collaboration with W. W.
Norton & Company, has established a new annual award to
publish a woman poet’s second collection and has chosen
Rebecca Wolff’s book Figment to receive the 2003
Barnard Women Poets Prize.
"Wolff’s poetry has a vivacity and edge which gives
it immediate presence," the judges said in a citation.
"Her poems make the sound of dark, witty talk… They
are full of the cadences of a sort of fearless knowing –
determined to confront loss, contradiction, absurdity with
language itself. Combining a sheer faith in words with a true
doubt about ready-made meanings, these poems sparkle and challenge
the reader."
Wolff’s book will be published by Norton in the spring
of 2004 and Barnard will host a reading to celebrate the book.
Saskia Hamilton, director of the Women Poets at Barnard
program and a contest judge, explained the rationale behind
awarding a prize for a writer’s second book. "Because
there are so many opportunities for young poets to find publishers
for their first books, we thought we would address a real
need in the literary community by making this a second-book
prize. Poets with second books have far fewer places to turn.
We believe this is the first time a college and a major publishing
house have collaborated to publish a second book by an emerging
female poet," she said. Other judges included poets Claudia
Rankine and Eavan Boland, and Vice President and Senior Editor
at W.W. Norton Jill Bialosky.
Bialosky, the Norton Senior Editor, said: "We are delighted
to be the publisher for Barnard’s second-book poetry
competition. Women Poets at Barnard has had a distinguished
presence in American poetry, and we are pleased to be continuing
with that tradition. We feel that there is a particular challenge
for poets publishing their second book, and we want the prize
to reflect these challenges—an author’s second book
frames the voice and presence more solidly."
"The
fact that Norton's poetry editor is one of the judges of the
contest together with the poetry faculty judges of Barnard,
makes this a truly collaborative project with a mutually satisfying
result. I can feel certain that Norton will support my book
and put as much effort into promoting it as any other on their
list," said Wolff.
Barnard had worked for 15 years with Beacon Press, establishing
a noted award for an author’s first book of poems. Barnard’s
original poetry award was acclaimed as "the best series
currently introducing new writers to the public" by Booklist,
and poet Mona Van Duyn remarked that it was "this series
that has most consistently convinced us that, in the rich
and multi-directional advances of American poetry, young women
are in the forefront." This tradition of excellence is
being continued through the new award presented to Wolff.
Wolff’s first book, Manderley, was selected for
the 2000 National Poetry Series by Robert Pinsky, and received
critical acclaim. Publisher’s Weekly wrote that
it "tears mosses off the old manse of Du Maurier's haunted
classic Rebecca, tosses them with a heady late ’90s
bravura."
Wolff earned a MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop in 1993
and founded the literary journal Fence in 1997. Her
poems have appeared in Paris Review, Grand Street, Exquisite
Corpse, and other journals. She lives in New York City
where she edits Fence and works as a freelance copyeditor.
The Barnard Women Poets Prize was first awarded in
1986 to Patricia Storace for Heredity, chosen by judge
Louise Bernikow. Other past winners include Donna Masini (That
Kind of Danger chosen by Mona Van Duyn), Ruth Forman (We
Are the Young Magicians chosen by Cherrie Moraga), Jena
Osman (The Character chosen by Lyn Hejinian), Larissa
Szporluk (Dark Sky chosen by Brenda Hillman), Christine
Hume (Musca Domestica chosen by Heather McHugh) and
Reetika Vazirani (White Elephants chosen by Marilyn
Hacker).
Known for the strength of its writing program, Barnard includes
among its faculty and novelists Mary Gordon ’71 and Caryl
Phillips, and poets Claudia Rankine and Saskia Hamilton. Each
year, literary scholars from around the world join the staff.
This year’s guest lecturers include poet Marie Ponsot,
British author Bernadine Evaristo, and fiction writer Sheri
Holman.
Barnard’s notable literary alumnae also include Zora
Neale Hurston ’28, Francine du Plessix Gray ’52,
June Jordan ’57, Erica Jong ’63, Ntozake Shange
’70, Jhumpa Lahiri ’89, who won the Pulitzer Prize
for fiction in 2000 for her book of short stories, Interpreter
of Maladies, and Edwidge Danticuat ’90. In addition
to Lahiri, six of Barnard’s alumnae in journalism have
won or shared the Pulitzer Prize, including novelist and Newsweek
columnist Anna Quindlen ’74, who is currently chair of
the Barnard Trustees; Natalie Angier ’78, author and
science writer for The New York Times; Rose Marie Arce
’86 and Suzanne Bilello ’77, members of a Newsday
team which shared the Pulitzer for spot news reporting in
1992; and Eileen McNamara ’74, who won the Pulitzer in
1997 for commentary in The Boston Globe; and Katherine
Boo ’88 who was recognized for her work at The Washington
Post for a series on abuse in District of Columbia group
homes.
W.W. Norton & Company is the nation’s largest independent,
employee-owned book publishing firm. Founded in 1923, the
firm now publishes 450 books annually in its combined divisions.
Its poetry program presents works by National Book Award winners
including Adrienne Rich, Gerald Stern, A.R. Ammons, Marilyn
Hacker, and Ai, as well as former U.S. Poet Laureates Rita
Dove, Stanley Kunitz, and Robert Pinsky. Norton continues
to adhere to its original motto, "Books that Live,"
striving to works of enduring distinction in the realm of
non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and textbooks.
|
