Mary Szybist Wins the National Book Award

Faculty member Mary Szybist was awarded the 2013 National Book Award in poetry for her collection, Incarnadine, in an awards ceremony last night.

An interview with Szybist appears online at the NBA website here.

A reading by all 2013 NBA finalists can be found here. Szybist’s reading begins at the 2-hour mark (2:00).

Read five poems from Incarnadine on the Graywolf website.

A webcast of the awards ceremony is available here. The announcement is made at the 2-hour and four minute mark (2:04), with her acceptance speech immediately following.

Szybist is the second WW MFA faculty member to win a National Book Award.  Andrea Barrett won it in 1996 for Ship Fever and Other Stories. Many faculty have been finalists for the National Book Awards, including Alan Shapiro for Night of the Republic in 2012, Ellen Bryant Voigt for Messenger in 2007 and for Shadow of Heaven in 2002, and Charles Baxter for The Feast of Love in 2000.

For more information on the National Book Award finalists and winners, go to www.nationalbook.org.