Alice James Award Explained
The Alice James Award, formerly the Beatrice Hawley Award, is given annually by Alice James Books.[1] The award includes publication of a book-length poetry manuscript and a cash prize (currently $2,000).[2]
The award was established by the press in 1986 to honor cooperative member author Beatrice Hawley (Making the House Fall Down, 1977)[3] who died in 1985 at forty-one years of age from lung cancer. The Award was renamed, like its sponsoring publisher, after Alice James "whose extraordinary gift for writing went unrecognized in her lifetime."[4] The Award is a nationally-offered publication prize open to poets at any stage of their careers.[5]
The first award recipient was Linnea Johnson, for The Chicago Home.[6] Winners of the award have often gone on to receive national attention and further honors for their winning works, most notably, Brian Turner for Here, Bullet, which received national and international media attention.[7] [8] [9] [10] Turner also received numerous further awards and honors for his work, including a 2006 Lannan Literary Fellowship, the 2006 Northern California Book Award in Poetry, the 2006 PEN Center USA "Best in the West" Literary Award in Poetry, a 2007 NEA Literature Fellowship in Poetry, the 2007 Poets' Prize, and the 2009 Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship.[11]
Catherine Barnett (Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced, 2003) was further recognized with the 2004 Glasgow Prize for Emerging Writers, a Whiting Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.[12] Mary Szybist (Granted, 2003) was further recognized with the 2004 Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award, and was a 2003 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist. B.H. Fairchild (The Art of the Lathe, 1997) was 1998 National Book Award Finalist, and won the 1999 William Carlos Williams Award, the 1999 PEN Center West Poetry Award, the 1999 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, and the 1999 California Book Award.
The 2008 winner, Slamming Open the Door, by Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno, was reviewed by The New York Times Sunday Book Review,[13] and Bonanno was interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air by Terri Gross.[14]
Beatrice Hawley / Alice James Award Winners
- 1986: Linnea Johnson, for The Chicago Home
- 1987: Laurel Trivelpiece, for Blue Holes
- 1988: Jean Valentine, for Home Deep Blue
- 1992: Alice Jones, for The Knot
- 1994: Richard McCann, for Ghost Letters
- 1995: Forrest Hamer, for Call & Response
- 1996: Cynthia Huntington, for We Have Gone to the Beach
- 1997: B.H. Fairchild, for The Art of the Lathe
- 1998: Laura Kasischke, for Fire and Flower
- 1999: Amy Newman, for Camera Lyrica
- 2000: Claudia Keelan, for Utopic
- 2001: Liz Waldner, for Self and Simulacra
- 2002: Mary Szybist, for Granted
- 2003: Catherine Barnett, for Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced
- 2004: Dobby Gibson, for Polar
- 2005: Brian Turner, for Here, Bullet
- 2006: Henrietta Goodman, for Take What You Want
- 2007: Lia Purpura, for King Baby
- 2008: Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno for Slamming Open the Door
- 2009: Reginald Dwayne Betts, for Shahid Reads His Own Palm[15]
- 2010: Lesle Lewis, for lie down too[16]
- 2011: Jane Springer, for Murder Ballad[17]
- 2012: Jamaal May for Hum
- 2013: Philip Metres for Sand Opera
- 2014: Richie Hofmann for Second Empire[18]
- 2015: Elizabeth Lyons for The Blessing of Dark Water
- 2016: Anna Rose Welch for Noah's Woods
- 2017: Mia Malhotra for When I See You Again It Will Be With a Different Face
- 2018: Amy Woolard for Neck of the Woods
- 2019: Rosebud Ben-Oni for If This is the Age We End Discovery
- 2020: Aldo Amparán for Brother Sleep
- 2021: Ina Cariño for Feast
Sources
Notes and References
- Web site: Alice James Award | Alice James Books . 2017-03-22 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170508012724/http://alicejamesbooks.org/alice-james-award/ . 2017-05-08 . dead .
- http://www.pw.org/content/beatrice_hawley_award_0 Poets & Writers > Alice James Books > Beatrice Hawley Award
- Web site: Alice James Books > Author Page > Beatrice Hawley . 2009-05-18 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081211175146/http://www.alicejamesbooks.org/making_house.html . 2008-12-11 . dead .
- Aftermatter in The Big Book of Exit Strategies by Jamaal May (Alice James Books, 2016).
- Web site: Alice James Books > Submissions Guidelines . 2009-05-18 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090210035123/http://www.alicejamesbooks.org/submission.html . 2009-02-10 . dead .
- http://www.alicejamesbooks.org/chicago_home.html Alice James Books > Author Page > Linnea Johnson
- http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/11/14/051114ta_talk_goodyear The New Yorker > The Talk of the Town > Ink: War Poet by Dana Goodyear > 11/14/05
- https://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/books/review/27clover.html New The New York Times Book Review> Review by J.B. of Here, Bullet by Brian Turner
- https://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/entertainment/poetry/profiles/poet_turner.html The NewsHour: Poetry Series > Poet Profile > Brian Turner > PBS
- https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jan/26/poetry1 The Guardian > Review by Sarah Crown of Here, Bullet > by Brian Turner > January 26, 2008
- http://www.alicejamesbooks.org/here_bullet.html Alice James Books > Author Page > Brian Turner
- http://www.nyu.edu/public.affairs/releases/detail/1080 New York University >Office of Public Affairs > NYU’s Barnett Receives Guggenheim Fellowship to Write Poetry > May 04, 2006
- https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/books/review/Kirby-t.html The New York Times Book Review > My Daughter's Murder, by David Kirby > 04/10/09
- https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111218053 NPR > Fresh Air > On The Page, Poet Mourns Daughter's Murder > July 29, 2009 > Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno Interviewed by Terri Gross
- Web site: Alice James Books > News & Events . 2009-05-18 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090814223152/http://www.alicejamesbooks.org/news.html . 2009-08-14 . dead .
- http://www.alicejamesbooks.org/News&Events/NewsandEvents.html#hawley Alice James Books > News & Events
- Web site: Alice James Books > News & Events > Announcing the winner of the 2011 Beatrice Hawley Award . 2011-09-25 . https://web.archive.org/web/20111003122031/http://alicejamesbooks.org/pages/news_events.php#hawley . 2011-10-03 . dead .
- Web site: Recent Winners of Writing Contests and Creative Writing Awards | Poets & Writers . 2014-09-27 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140924185311/http://www.pw.org/content/recent_winners . 2014-09-24 . dead .