Black Pastoral by Ariana Benson (University of Georgia Press) has won the $25,000 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, which honors "the most outstanding book of poetry published in the United States in the previous year" and is sponsored by the Academy of American Poets.
Judges said in part: "The lush gravity of Black Pastoral's phrasing and lyricism presses our ears and our soles to the peat of an often dismissed world of not only Black experience but also, within it, Black ecology, Black joy, and an investment in Black futurities. Benson's collection embraces and recasts the idea of 'escape' and the material, emotional, and psychological stakes of the relationship between nature and liberation for people who have known different seasons of bondage."
All the Words I Can Remember Are Poems by Michelle Peñaloza (Persea Books) has won the James Laughlin Award, which is given "to recognize and support a second book of poetry forthcoming in the next calendar year." The award is endowed by the Drue Heinz Trust and sponsored by the Academy of American Poets. Besides a cash prize of $5,000, the winner receives a one-week residency at the Betsy Hotel in Miami.
Judges said, "Navigating humor and sorrow--and never neglecting the startling and subversive joy that can be found at their intersection--Michelle Peñaloza uses music and elegantly constructed moments of surprise to guide her reader with a seemingly effortless yet brilliantly deliberate hand. Transposing the mythologies and historical artifacts of an often buried Philippine history and the complex diasporic self-vision of a post-colonial Pinay daughter, Peñaloza's All the Words I Can Remember Are Poems is a sure-footed and confident second collection that establishes this poet's vision as distinct and unforgettable. These poems illuminate the expansive and specific perspective of a multilingual and multicultural speaker with playful precision and sophistication, utilizing modes and meanings that renew the power of storytelling. Here is an unapologetic voice, one that is not afraid to take up necessary space and to claim her belonging in the world, a voice that rings as clearly as a fiercely struck bell."
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Temple Folk by Aaliyah Bilal (Simon & Schuster) has won the $15,000 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, which aims "to inspire and recognize rising African-American fiction writers of excellence at a national level." The award is sponsored by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation and celebrates the legacy of Ernest Gaines.
Judges said that the winning short story collection, which was a finalist for the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction, "portrays the lived experiences of Black Muslims grappling with faith, family, and freedom in America. Through her narrative, Bilal offers a poignant look at the discrepancies between personal beliefs and actions. Temple Folk presents humanity's moral failures with compassion, nuance, and humor to remind us that while perfection is what many of us strive for, it is errors that make us human."
Bilal commented: "I am especially proud to be associated through this award with the legacy of Mr. Gaines, as his oeuvre informs my ambition to tell timeless stories in plain spoken, elegant prose. Mr. Gaines teaches us how to do this sacred work with grace, grit, and love."