Kundiman, the New York City-based organization promoting Asian American poets, and Alice James Books, the Maine-based cooperative poetry press, have partnered to present a $2,000 book publication prize in 2010. The new award, the only prize of its kind, is dedicated exclusively to Asian American poets.
"We, Kundiman, are thrilled to be partnering with Alice James Books on
this initiative in that it gives us an opportunity to participate in a
material way the production of Asian American poetry and in the
professional development of Asian American poets," said Sarah Gambito, Kundiman’s cofounder and executive board president. She went on to say that the award "fulfills our shared commitment to contributing to the diversity of voices in the poetic landscape."
Interested writers have the remainder of the summer and autumn to prepare their manuscripts, which should be forty-eight to eighty pages in length, with the deadline falling on January 15 of next year. The board members of Alice James Books and Kundiman will collectively judge the prize.
Kundiman, which has been in operation for six years, runs an annual retreat at the University of Virginia and a reading series in New York City. In 2005 and 2006, the organization awarded a prize for smaller volumes, the Vincent Chin Memorial Chapbook Prize.
More information about the award is forthcoming on the Kundiman Web site.