2020 Lois Morrell and John Russell Hayes Poetry Awards
2020 Awards
Judged by poet Daisy Fried '89
Lois Morrell Award (1st Place)
Nicole Liu '21 for Bastard Eggs, Monsoon, 10/01/2019, fish magic"these poems struck me for their intimate, dense, alert imagery, their tonal shifts, their sudden improvisations that opened up the poem all over again. Liu marries journalistic observation with a poet’s way of singing and, so, changes what she sees, and what she shows us."
John Russell Hayes Award (2nd Place)
Alex Kingsley '20 for lag, scars, sweater, beauty, just to clarify“Reading each of these five poems, I barely knew I was reading, so lucid, direct and unfussy is Kingsley’s language—that kind of transparency isn’t easy to achieve—and then each of Kingsley’s endings spun me. Kingsley has an unerring instinct for what to leave out and what to put in.”
John Russell Hayes Award (3rd Place)
Tolga Atabas '23 for translation of Traitor by Nazim Hikmet and The Awaited by Nacip Fazli Kisakurek"these translations are striking in that they define very clearly the two poets’ very different tones and preoccupations: Hikmet’s heavily ironic and vividly heartfelt political humor and Kısakürek’s austere lyricism."
