Inua Ellams Shortlisted for Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry 2021
Inua Ellams' The Actual, which is published by Penned in the Margins, has been shortlisted for the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry 2021. In 55 poems that swerve and crackle with a rare music, Inua Ellams unleashes a full-throated assault on empire and its legacies of racism, injustice and toxic masculinity. At its heart, this book confronts the absolutism and ‘foolish machismo’ of hero culture-from Perseus to Trump, from Batman to Boko Haram. Through the thick gauze of history, these breathtaking poems look the world square in the face and ask, “What the actual—?”
The Derek Walcott Prize includes a $1,000 cash award, along with a reading at the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, the publication of a limited-edition broadside by Arrowsmith Press, and a week-long residency at Derek Walcott’s home in Trinidad. It is awarded to a full-length book of poems published in 2020 by a living poet who is not a US citizen.
Click here to purchase a copy of The Actual by Inua Ellams.
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