Ishion Hutchinson Takes Home National Book Critics Circle Award

Last night at the New School in New York, the National Book Critics Circle honored Ishion Hutchinson with the 2016 award for House of Lords and Commons, which won out over an impressive list of nominees, including Robert Pinsky, Tyehimba Jess, Monica Youn, and Bernadette Mayer. From the NBCCA site:

Ishion Hutchinson was awarded the poetry prize for House of Lords and Commons (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), a collection that traces the landscapes of memory, childhood and the author’s native Jamaica. The criticism award was presented to Carol Anderson for White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide (Bloomsbury), a searing critique of white America’s systematic resistance to African-American advancement.

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Founded in 1974, the National Book Critics Circle Awards are given annually to honor outstanding writing and to foster a national conversation about reading, criticism, and literature. The awards are open to any book published in the United States in English (including translations). The National Book Critics Circle comprises more than 700 critics and editors from leading newspapers, magazines and online publications.

Excellent choice, book critics! Head here to read a selection of Hutchinson's writing, as published in the pages of Poetry.