Kaveh Akbar
Please join me in congratulating Kaveh Akbar, assistant professor of English, for winning the 28th annual John C. Zacharis First Book Award for his poetry collection, Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Alice James Books, 2017).
The Emerson College-based literary journal Ploughshares administers the Zacharis award, which carries a $1,500 cash prize. The award honors the best debut book by a Ploughshares writer, alternating annually between fiction in odd years and poetry in even years.
Ploughshares poetry editor John Skoyles judged this year’s contest, writing of Kaveh’s collection that “the poems in Calling a Wolf a Wolf seem more ignited than written. A powerful propulsion drives each line into its next confrontation with events, figures and moments of recollection. Akbar writes with both urgency and precision.”
Ploughshares recently profiled Kaveh and announced his win in its winter issue.
Congratulations, professor Akbar!
David A. Reingold
Justin S. Morrill Dean
College of Liberal Arts