The winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry
for 2012 is Orlando Ricardo Menes
for his manuscript, Fetish. He will receive a $3,000 prize and
publication by the University of Nebraska Press.
“Menes is an accomplished
poet who has managed to evolve a language that seems determined to encapsulate
the broadest and most compelling notion of America that embraces both the
northern and southern continents,” says Kwame
Dawes, editor of Prairie Schooner. “His poems reveal a formal
dexterity that is awe inspiring, and his poems are rich with delight and full
fascination with the human experience. His is a bold and inventive imagination.
Our readers, we believe, will share our enthusiasm for Fetish.”
Menes was born in Lima,
Perú, to Cuban parents but has lived most of his life in the United States.
Since 2000 he has taught at the University of Notre Dame where he now directs
the creative writing program. In addition to Fetish, he is also the author of Furia (Milkweed) and Rumba atop the Stones (Peepal Tree). His poems have
appeared in numerous literary magazines, including The Hudson Review, Callaloo,
The Antioch Review, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Alaska
Quarterly Review, Indiana Review, Image, and Shenandoah.
Menes is editor of Renaming Ecstasy: Latino Writings on the Sacred
(Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingüe) and The Open Light: Poets from Notre Dame, 1991-2008
(University of Notre Dame Press). Besides his own poems, Menes has published
translations of Spanish poetry, including My Heart Flooded with Water: Selected Poems by
Alfonsina Storni (Latin American Literary Review Press). He is the recipient of
a Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
ABOUT PRAIRIE
SCHOONER: Prairie Schooner, a national literary quarterly published with the
support of the English Department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the
University of Nebraska Press, is home to the best fiction, poetry, essays, and
reviews being published today by beginning, mid-career, and established
writers.
To celebrate Prairie
Schooner’s tenth birthday, associate editor Maurice Johnson wrote in the
Spring 1937 issue, “Like other little magazines, the Schooner was not
published for money's sake, paid nothing for contributions, and sought to print
the work of new writers not yet accepted by the wealthy, policy-bound
periodicals. Unlike most little magazines, the Schooner has been
long-lived . . . and it has published the early work of more than twenty
writers whose subsequent appearances in print have brought them general
recognition.”
Johnson’s vision has been
upheld during our more than eighty-five years of publication and the modest
figure of twenty writers has swelled to literally hundreds of authors who got their
start at Prairie Schooner before the mainstream publishing houses took a
first look. The magazine has presented work by Pulitzer Prize winners, Nobel
laureates, National Endowment for the Arts recipients, and MacArthur and
Guggenheim fellows. Work first published in Prairie Schooner has been
reprinted or cited in the Pushcart Prize and O. Henry Prize
volumes, Best American Essays, Best American Short Stories, and Best
American Poetry.
For more information about
Prairie Schooner including
submissions, subscriptions and contests, visit the journal’s website.
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4 comments:
Gracias Daniel. This is indeed great news for Orlando Ricardo Menes, The Prairie Schooner, and The University of Nebraska-Press. Beautifully distinct clarity in his words. So happy for all of us!
Gracias! I reviewed one of his early books, Furia, several years ago...he is a remarkable poet who should be read by many. I am delighted he won.
Doesn't it seem odd that Menes wins a prize overseen by his former co-worker at ND? Whether or not Menes' manuscript was privileged (it was certainly known as being his), even the appearance of corruption should be avoided. Anyone who paid an entry fee deserves their money back.
I believe that third statement is mistaken and should be stricken from the blog.
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