Rutgers-Newark Teacher Wins National Book Award For Poetry

NEWARK, NJ — A certified poetic “genius” who teaches at Rutgers-Newark has earned a prestigious National Book Award for Poetry for his latest work, his alma mater recently announced.

John Keene – who was named as a MacArthur “Genius Grant” winner in 2018 – won his latest prize for the collection “Punks: New & Selected Poems.” The volume also captured the Lambda Literary award and the Thom Gunn Prize for Gay Poetry earlier this year.

Here’s how Rutgers describes Keene’s new poetry collection:

“A sprawling 234-page volume, Punks, published last year by Song Cave, is split into seven sections, spanning decades, and includes previously unpublished and new work by Keene. The collection weaves together historic narratives of loss, lust and love via many voices, ranging from historic Black personalities to Keene’s friends and lovers in gay bars and bedrooms, addressing topics such as desire, oppression, AIDS and grief.”

In his acceptance speech at the ceremony, Keene dedicated the National Book Award for Poetry to “several generations of writers, particularly the Black, gay and trans writers, especially those whom we lost to HIV/AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s.”

“I had the pleasure of hearing and meeting some of these writers, and let me just say they were brilliant, they were fierce, they were original, they were daring, they were courageous, and their voices not only captured the world they were living in but envisioned a better one,” Keene said.

“Let’s return to their words and the words of so many vital writers and artists we may have forgotten,” the educator added.

Keene also thanked his “brilliant students, colleagues and the administration at Rutgers-Newark.”

Keene, chair of the African American and African Studies department at Rutgers-Newark, also teaches in the English department and MFA Creative Writing Program. His published works include the short-fiction collection “Counternarratives” (New Directions, 2015), which won several prizes, including the 2016 American Book Award, 2016 Lannan Literary Award for fiction, and 2018 Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction. He’s also the author the novel “Annotations” (New Directions, 1995); the poetry collection “Seismosis” (1913 Press, 2006), a collaboration with artist Christopher Stackhouse; the art book “GRIND” (ITI Press, 2016), an art-text collaboration with photographer Nicholas Muellner; and the poetry chapbook “Playland” (Seven Kitchens Press, 2016).

“You see the evidence of John's brilliance in the accolades he continues to amass, from the McArthur Genius award to the multiple awards that this book has brought,” School of Arts and Sciences Dean Jacqueline Mattis said.

“We are so proud of him for the work that he has produced,” Mattis added. “And we are certainly grateful for the gift that he is as a human being, and equally grateful for the gifts that he brings to our community and to all communities through his writing, his teaching, and through the beauty and humanistic power of his words.”

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