Poet Jericho Brown has been awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for poetry for his recent collection The Tradition.

In selecting Brown’s book for the honor, the Pulitzer board called it “a collection of masterful lyrics that combine delicacy with historical urgency in their loving evocation of bodies vulnerable to hostility and violence.”

His work touches on themes of trauma in American life, while also challenging traditional structures of poetry.

Brown was born in Louisiana and is now a professor teaches English and creative writing at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

His previous work The New Testament focused on what it is to be gay and black in modern America.

In a 2018 interview with The Guardian, Brown spoke about reconciling his sexuality with his religious beliefs and becoming ill because of HIV-related complications.

OIP Staff

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