BOSTON, Mass. – Maine Poet Laureate Wesley McNair of Mercer has received the 2015 PEN New England Award for Poetry in a ceremony at the Kennedy Library in Boston on April 19. The award was given for his new collection of poetry, “The Lost Child; Ozark Poems.” (David R. Godine, 2014).
The citation read at the ceremony spoke of The Lost Child’s “masterful syntax” and “cunning humor,” concluding that it “harnesses the timeless power of the epic poem to tell necessary stories of our human tribe.” The citation added: “The colloquial music of these poems will move readers to laughter and tears.”
The PEN New England prize is given annually for individual books by poets, essayists and novelists. It has been awarded to poets such as Mary Oliver, Donald Hall and Stanley Kunitz, and writers such as E.B. White, Andre Dubus and Tracy Kidder. This year, the nonfiction prize was won by Kevin Burmingham for “The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce’s Ulyssess” (Penguin Books), and the fiction prize went to Carolyn Chute for “Treat Us Like Dogs and We Will Become Wolves.”
Wesley McNair is Professor Emeritus and Writer in Residence at the University of Maine at Farmington. His other awards in poetry include Guggenheim and Rockefeller Fellowships, two NEA grants and a United States Artists Fellowship. The author or editor of 20 books, he has twice been invited to read his poems at the Library of Congress.
Very deserving!
Congratulations!