Poetry Foundation’s Lilly Prizes make for a memorable night: ‘You hear about it, you dream about it, but you never expect that you will get’
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For Haki Madhubuti, winning a Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize from the Poetry Foundation was a total surprise. A great award, but not necessarily a cherry on the sundae of his literary life.
“I feel honored, but I still have a lot to do,” he said.
It’s hard to imagine that’s true. The multi-hyphenate poet-teacher-writer-activist celebrated Third World Press as publisher and founder earlier this month. The South Side nonprofit publishing house that centers the Black experience in its work turned 55 this year. The press is the second oldest independent Black-owned book publishing company in the United States, he said.
“There’s no other Black publishing and very few white publishing companies that ever reach that milestone,” he added.
Madhubuti was among the 11 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize recipients this year from the Chicago-based Poetry Foundation. Awarded annually, the $100,000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize honors a living U.S. poet whose lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition. Established in 1986 by Ruth Lilly, the prize is one of the most prestigious awards given to American poets. The other 2022 winners are Sandra Cisneros, CAConrad, Rita Dove, Nikki Giovanni, Juan Felipe Herrera, Angela Jackson, Sharon Olds, Sonia Sanchez, Patti Smith and Arthur Sze. The poets were recognized for their achievements at a ceremony at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Thursday evening.
This year for the The Poetry Foundation marks the 110th anniversary of Poetry magazine, so the institution awarded 10 additional Ruth Lilly Poetry Prizes totaling $1,132,500. The anniversary coincides with the foundation’s new Strategic Plan, a three-year plan of transparency, articulation, access and participation for all poetry communities.
Madhubuti commended Poetry Foundation president Michelle Boone, and Adrian Matejka, Poetry magazine’s first Black editor, for their work thus far: “I believe that with this award given to these poets is a serious and loud introduction to Boone. And bringing Matejka in to edit the magazine is a real first being a Black man editing the premiere poetry magazine in the country, if not the world. It’s clearly nothing to sneeze at.”
Madhubuti also spoke about what work he felt he still had to do, including the second part of his memoir. He’s already written 36 books, about 14-15 of them on poetry, others nonfiction.
“All my life has been about trying to educate and trying to enlighten not only myself and my own family, but the extended families in our communities,” he said. “I’m 80 years old, I’m not thinking about retirement.”
Angela Jackson said the win was a complete surprise to her. “(It’s) one of those things you hear about it, you dream about it, but you never expect that you will get.” As Illinois Poet Laureate, she said her time is occupied making sure the enthusiasm for poetry is strong in the state.
“The thing about poetry is it is more popular during times of social upheaval and turmoil,” Jackson said. “When people need poetry, is when poetry is generated — it comes alive. Poetry transforms hearts and minds and that’s what its doing — we’re seeing all kinds of poetry being written down now.”
She suggests youth find a poem that interests them and follow that author or just read around the poetry section of a bookstore or library and see what they come across. (When in doubt, you can never go wrong with Gwendolyn Brooks.)
For Rita Dove, the Lilly Prize is not only an award for lifetime achievement, but one of the most prestigious prizes in the country. “It’s pretty wild, pretty wonderful,” she said. Dove’s next work will be a memoir. She said she’s a little uncertain about where to start since it’s different from writing poems, but she will follow the muse wherever it takes her.
“I’d like to produce another play, the theater is such a thrill and joy for me. I’d love to go through whole experience again,” she said. “Memoirs — to look back on one’s life, it feels dangerous, it feels like I’m saying iIm done and I’m not nearly done, so I’m fighting that impulse as well.”
Nikki Giovanni also spoke about aspirations, post-Lilly Prize: “I want to beat Bobby Flay,” she said with a smile, referencing the chef with the cooking show. “And my ingredients would be roasted pig’s feet with chocolate ale.” She laughs when talking about her appearance on Season 2 of “Love Life” as herself and her $1.72 a week gratuity check. And she beams when talking about her latest children’s book, “A Library.” It was written for her grandmother. But Giovanni meeting Carla Hayden, the 14th Librarian of Congress, who, since September Sept. 2016, has been overseeing the Library of Congress, the largest library in the world? She beams.
“A Black woman as the Librarian of Congress and she had me presenting a book ... it meant so much to me, to us. I was so nervous, I have never been that nervous in my life.”
Giovanni had met the late queen of England, but with Hayden she was nervous. Heroes are people too.
As Giovanni said: “Listen to yourself and have some faith in your imagination.”
