John Yau Wins 2018 Jackson Poetry Prize

Posted on May 14, 2018

John Yau is the winner of the 2018 Jackson Poetry Prize. Yau is a poet, art critic and professor at Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts. The Jackson Poetry Prize is an annual $60,000 poetry prize given to an American poet by Poets & Writers.

Twenty nominees were nominated by twenty poets. The group of nominated poets remains anonymous. The judges chose Yau from the twenty nominees. This year's judges are poets Laura Kasischke, Robin Coste Lewis, and Arthur Sze.

The judges had this to say about John Yau: "John Yau composes expansive variations, in series, that simultaneously widen, deepen, and complicate the scope of a poem. Visual art, film, and Surrealism are rivers in his work, yet it is Yau's dazzling imagination and singular command of language that create unforgettable poems."

You can read some of Yau's poems here at Poetry Foundation. The Jackson Poetry Prize is endowed by a gift from the Liana Foundation. It is named for the John and Susan Jackson family. You can find more about the annual prize here.

Here's an interview with John Yau discusses his life and work from the New York Foundation for the Arts.