Manhattanville College's Joseph Fasano Nominated for Poets' Prize

Purchase, NY, November 11, 2014 -- Manhattanville College Adjunct Professor Joseph Fasano’s collection of poems Fugue for Other Hands (Cider Press, 2013) has been nominated by Linda Pastan for the Poets’ Prize, awarded annually for the best book of verse published by a living American poet two years prior to the award year. Pastan is the recipient of many awards including the Dylan Thomas award, a Pushcart Prize, and the Poetry Society of America’s Alice Fay di Castagnola Award.

An independent panel of 20 eminent American poets makes the nominations with each poet naming only two books from the thousands published by small presses and major publishing houses in the United States. Past winners of the Prize include Adrienne Rich, Wendell Berry, Robert Wrigley, and Ellen Bryant Voigt.

“This nomination is particularly meaningful for me, as the Poets’ Prize is administered entirely by poets, for poets,” Fasano said. “As a writer, I’m honored to hear that my work is being recognized by writers whose work I admire tremendously.”

Fasano teaches Academic Writing and Creative Writing at Manhattanville College, and he is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Creative Writing in Columbia University’s School of the Arts.

“Joe’s writing is moving, deeply felt and delivered, his teaching alive and genuine,” said Professor Jeff Bens, director of the Undergraduate Creative Writing Program at Manhattanville. “We are lucky to have him with us.”

Joseph Fasano’s most recent collection of poems is Inheritance (Cider Press, 2014). His first book, Fugue for Other Hands, won the 2011 Cider Press Review Book Award, and his book-length poem, Vincent, based on the murder of Tim McLean, will be published in July 2015. His poems have appeared in The Yale Review, The Southern Review, Boston Review, The Times Literary Supplement, Tin House, FIELD, Passages North, Measure, and other publications. His work has several times been featured as the poem of the week from the Missouri Review, as the poem of the day from the Academy of American Poets, and on Verse Daily. A winner of the RATTLE Poetry Prize, he has been a finalist for the Missouri Review Editors’ Prize, among other honors, and he has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He teaches at Manhattanville College and in the graduate and undergraduate creative writing programs of Columbia University.

About Manhattanville College:

Manhattanville College (www.manhattanville.edu) is an independent, co-educational liberal arts institution dedicated to academic excellence and social and civic action. Manhattanville prepares students to be ethical and socially responsible leaders in a global community. Located just 30 minutes from New York City, Manhattanville serves 1,700 undergraduate students and 1,000 graduate students from more than 50 countries and 30 states. Founded in 1841, the College offers more than 50 undergraduate areas of study in the arts and sciences, and offers graduate programs in Education, Business, Creative Writing, as well as Continuing and Executive Education programs.