This week saw the announcement of this year's National Book Award finalists, including two PennSound authors — Craig Santos Perez and Evie Shockley — nominated in the Poetry category alongside John Lee Clark, Brandon Som, and Monica Youn.
In the judges' citations, Perez is praised for "observ[ing] and assert[ing] storytelling as an act of resistance — a written form of 'åmot,' the Chamoru word for 'medicine' — in from unincorporated territory [åmot], the fifth installment in his series dedicated to his homeland of Guåhan (Guam)." On Perez's PennSound author page you can listen to readings from earlier installments in the from unincorporated territory series, in readings from Oakland and our own Kelly Writers House, along with a 2009 appearance on Cross Cultural Poetics, hosted by Leonard Schwartz.
The judges also hailed Shockley's suddenly we for "play[ing] with visuals, sounds, and poetic form to pay homage to Black feminist visionaries, both living and departed, of a collective 'we.'" Visitors to Shockley's PennSound author page can browse a wide variety of recordings — of readings, talks, and interviews — spanning nearly twenty years.
We congratulate both poets, along with the other nominees, on this tremendous honor
and will look forward to November 15th, when the winner will be announced.
