2024 Yeats Poetry Prize Reading - Union Square
Join Barnes & Noble - Union Square on Thursday, April 18, 2024 at 6pm ET as we welcome award-winning poet January O’Neil and the winners of the 2024 Yeats Poetry Prize, sponsored by the WB Yeats Society of NY! Ms. O’Neil, this year’s judge, will introduce the recipients and the reading. First Prize recipient is Carlos Gomez for “Double Golden Shovel Sonnet Found on the Q Train”; Second Prize recipient is Sean Nevin for “Kapusniak”; and Honorable Mentions include Punam Nimchonok for “Prayer Wing," Caroline King for “Orlando,” and Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach for “I Always Thought I’d Marry a Sasha." Admission is free, but please register to ensure you have a seat.
ABOUT WB YEATS SOCIETY OF NY:
Literary society The W.B. Yeats Society of New York was founded June 13, 1990, on the poet’s 125th birthday. The Society quickly became one of New York’s largest and most ambitious organizations dedicated to the life and work of a particular writer. It sponsors an international poetry competition, the Yeats Poetry Prize, shares links to other Yeats-related sites, and assists in establishing other Yeats societies in the U.S. Among its events is an annual "Taste of the Yeats Summer School,' an all-day Saturday program every spring that emulates the fortnight event in Ireland every summer.
Learn more at www.YeatsSociety.nyc and www.facebook.com/YeatsSociety
ABOUT YEATS POETRY PRIZE:
Now in its 27th year, the annual award is sponsored by the WB Yeats Society of NY (www.YeatsSociety.nyc). Previous judges include poets and writers L.S. Asekoff, Billy Collins, Alfred Corn, Jessica Greenbaum, Eamon Grennan, Ann Kjellberg, Alan Feldman, Campbell McGrath, Leslie McGrath, Samuel Menashe, Paul Muldoon, Marie Ponsot, Alice Quinn, Spencer Reese, Grace Schulman, Harvey Shapiro, and Bill Zavatsky.
ABOUT JANUARY O’NEIL:
January O'Neil is an award-winning poet and associate professor at Salem State University (Salem, MA), Her latest book of poems is Glitter Road (February, 2024), published by CavanKerry Press. “This collection reflects on loss and new love against the backdrop of a season I spent in Oxford, Mississippi,” says O’Neil. “While there, I was able to explore the history and legacy of Emmett Till, contemplating how his story is braided with mine, and how race binds us all together. These poems celebrate the vulnerability and resilience of womanhood, and reclaim life amid great transition through awakenings, landscapes, meanders, and possibilities." Ms. O’Neil’s other books of poetry include Rewilding (2018), Misery Islands (2014), and Underlife (2009), all published by CavanKerry Press. Her poems and articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A-Day series, American Poetry Review, Poetry, and Sierra, among publications. Her poem “At the Rededication of the Emmett Till Memorial” was a co-winner of the 2022 Allen Ginsberg Poetry award. Ms. O’Neil has received fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Cave Canem, and Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. From 2019-2020, she was John and Renée Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi, Oxford, and currently serves as 2022-2023 board chair of the Association of Writers and Writers Programs (AWP). She earned her BA from Old Dominion University and her MFA from New York University. She lives in Beverly, MA, with her two children.