The American Poetry Review is happy to announce that Joy Priest has been awarded the 2020 Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize for her poem "A Personal History of Breathing." We thank all the poets who submitted work; we were honored to read so many excellent poems. "A Personal History of Breathing" will be featured in the September/October 2020 issue. 

 

Joy Priest is the author of Horsepower (Pitt Poetry Series, Sept. 2020), winner of the Donald Hall Prize for Poetry. Her poems and essays have been published or are forthcoming in ESPN, Poetry Northwest, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Best New Poets 2014, 2016, and 2019. She has been a journalist, a waitress, and a fast food worker, and has facilitated writing workshops for juvenile and adult incarcerated women. She is currently a doctoral student in Literature & Creative Writing at the University of Houston.

 

The Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize awards $1,000 and publication of the winning poem to a poet under 40 years of age in honor of the late Stanley Kunitz's dedication to mentoring poets.

 

Congratulations, Joy!