The Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize: a first-book award for poets of color
The Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize, a first-book award for poets of color, is a partnership between Northwestern University’s Poetry and Poetics Colloquium and Northwestern University Press. This annual award combines the efforts of both organizations in celebrating and publishing works of lasting cultural value and literary excellence.
Seeking to showcase the work of emerging poets of color, the Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize was established in 2012. Writers who first appeared in this series include Ama Codjoe, Jenny Xie, Nicole Sealey, and Marcelo Hernandez Castillo.
Series Editors: Chris Abani and Susannah Young-ah Gottlieb
Most Recent Winner:
Congratulations to Jonathan Fletcher, winner of the 2023 Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize. His book, This Is My Body: Poems, will be published by Northwestern University Press in January 2025.
This Is My Body readily and unapologetically examines issues of race and ethnicity, ancestry and community, mental illness and recovery, queer sexuality and identity, and the body and disability. Traditionally religious language and hopeful imagery abound; so, too, do their spiritual antagonists: doubt, loss, isolation, and despair. But even in the darkest moments of a troubled inner life, insight and triumph intervene and sometimes even linger. An intimate exploration of the human experience, this debut collection proves itself more than the sum of its interior encounters—however revelatory or transformative any one given experience might be. It is a timely and necessary exercise in faith.
JONATHAN FLETCHER is a Pushcart Prize nominee whose work has been featured in numerous literary journals and magazines. He currently serves as a Zoeglossia Fellow and lives in San Antonio, Texas.