Catherine Barnett (poetry, ’02) has won the Academy of American Poets’ 2012 James Laughlin Award, which “honors a second book of original poetry, in English, by a living citizen of the United States…  Offered since 1954, it is the only second-book award for poetry in the United States.”

Judge April Bernard wrote that Catherine’s book, The Game of Boxes (2012, Graywolf). “…builds a complex poetic structure in which fundamental questions about motherhood, trust, eroticism, and spiritual meaning are posed and then set into motion in relation to one another. The mind is delighted, the spirit enthralled, by this wonderful book.”  This year’s books were judged by Bernard, Cyrus Cassells and Dana Levin.

Past faculty members who have won the award include Lisel Mueller (1975, The Private Life), Larry Levis (1976, The Afterlife) and Tony Hoagland (1997, Donkey Gospel).