Claremont Graduate University is delighted to announce the winners of the 2018 Kingsley & Kate Tufts Poetry Awards:

• The 2018 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award goes to Patricia Smith, for her book Incendiary Art (TriQuarterly/Northwestern UP). Smith is the author of eight books of poetry, including Incendiary Art; Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah and Blood Dazzler. Her work has appeared in Poetry, The Paris Review, Tin House and in Best American Poetry, Best American Essays and Best American Mystery Stories. A Guggenheim fellow, NEA grant recipient, and two-time winner of the Pushcart Prize, Patricia currently teaches at the College of Staten Island and in the MFA program at Sierra Nevada College.
• The 2018 Kate Tufts Discovery Award goes to Donika Kelly for her book Bestiary (Graywolf Press). Kelly’s poems have appeared in Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, and the Virginia Quarterly Review. A poet and scholar, she lives in western New York, where she teaches at St. Bonaventure University. Bestiary is her debut collection and is the winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize.

Over the weekend, the 2018 Kingsley & Kate Tufts Poetry Awards judges met on campus to discuss the finalist titles, deliberate, and select the 2018 award-winning poets. During a dinner at the CGU President’s House, the winners were announced and notified.

Claremont Graduate University shared the news publicly early this week, and the story was picked up by numerous news outlets and literary organizations.

We are beyond thrilled for these two poets, who are now part of our Kingsley & Kate Tufts Poetry Awards family, and we can’t wait to celebrate with them during the Kingsley & Kate Tufts Poetry Awards reading and reception, to be held at the Huntington Library, in April.