New Prize for Anglophone Arab Poets: ‘Etel Adnan Poetry Series’

The University of Arkansas Press together with the Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI) is accepting submissions for the Etel Adnan Poetry Series and will award a $1,000 Etel Adnan Poetry Prize to a first or second book of poetry, in English, by a writer of Arab heritage:

Etel-AdnanThe series will be edited by award-winning Arab poets Hayan Charara and Fady Joudah. Translations are not accepted — this is only for work written originally in English by Arab authors. (Although if your work is self-translated, how would they know?)

The prize is named for world-renowned poet, novelist, playwright, essayist, and visual artist Etel Adnan, who was recently named a “Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres” by the French government.

Adnan is perhaps best known for her classic war novel Sitt Marie Rose, which won the “France-Pays Arabes” award and has been translated into more than ten languages, as well as her In the Heart of the Heart of Another Country. But she has numerous other collections of poetry, as well as theatrical and other writings. Her visual art has also been seeing a wave of recent interest.

Submissions to the Etel Adnan Poetry Series will be accepted year-round, with a deadline of April 15. The winner will be notified by September 15, and the press will announce the winner by the first of October. More details on how to submit can be found on the University of Arkansas’s website.

From the Poetry Foundation, poems by Adnan: 

From Electronic Poetry Review: