Announcing the Winner of the 2018 Cave Canem Poetry Prize

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Cave Canem congratulates Malcolm Tariq, whose manuscript Heed the Hollow has been selected by prize judge Chris Abani as winner of the 2018 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. Abani notes that the collection “charts a neglected history, re-inscribing a loved and loving black body into a narrative of excavation. These poems are lyrically complex, charged, artfully and erotically made. It’s a rare and exciting debut.” Tariq will receive $1,000, publication by Graywolf Press in fall 2019, complimentary copies of the book and a feature reading in New York City.  Poet Hope Wabuke has been named honorable mention for her manuscript, The Body Family.

Launched in 1999 with Rita Dove’s selection of Natasha Trethewey’s Domestic Work, the Cave Canem Poetry Prize is a first-book award dedicated to the discovery of exceptional manuscripts by Black poets of African descent.

Malcolm Tariq is a Cave Canem Fellow from Savannah, Georgia and the author of Extended Play, winner of the 2017 Gertrude Press Poetry Chapbook Contest. He was a 2016-2017 playwriting apprentice at Horizon Theatre Company and is the recipient of a 2018 Ethel Woolson Lab from Working Title Playwrights. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in CURA, Vinyl, HEArt Online, Nepantla, Tinderbox, Blueshift Journal, and The Iowa Review. A graduate of Emory University, Malcolm has a PhD in English from the University of Michigan.