WW Faculty Laura Kasischke Wins First Rilke Prize

Warren Wilson faculty member Laura Kasischke has been named the winner of the  University of North Texas’ Creative Writing Program‘s first Rilke Poetry Prize.  The prize, named for poet Ranier Maria Rilke, is a $10,000 prize recognizing a book written by a mid-career poet who demonstrates exceptional artistry and vision.

Kasischke was awarded the prize for her collection Space, In Chains, a New York Times Notable Book for 2011 and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

The judges had this to say:

“In this collection that explores imaginative freedom in the face of personal loss, Kasischke reveals a penetrating insight into what makes people work and not work through her characteristic emotional range, wit, surprising and uncanny imagery, and an intensity created through spare and radiant language. We see ourselves as “space, in chains,” bound and free, challenged by the book’s transfigurations of anxiety and grief into tribute and play.”

Kasischke will read at University of North Texas on Thursday, April 19 and at the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture on Friday, April 20.