Iain Haley Pollock, director of the MFA Creative Writing program at Manhattanville College, was recently named the winner of the Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award, granted by the Poetry Society of America, for a ten-page sample of an in-progress manuscript of poetry.
Iain Haley Pollock is the author of the poetry collections Spit Back a Boy (2011) and Ghost, Like a Place (2018). His poems have also appeared in many literary outlets, including African American Review, American Academy of Poets Poem-a-Day, American Poetry Review, The New York Times Magazine, PoetrySociety.org, and The Progressive. Outside of publishing poems, Pollock performs his work widely, from the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival to libraries and art centers; he curated the Rye Poetry Path, a public poetry installation in Rye, NY; he serves on the editorial board at Slapering Hol Press and Tiger Bark Press; and he edits Manhattanville’s literary journal, Inkwell.
When submitting to the award, Pollock “tried to choose poems for the 10-page sample that are reflective of the themes that are emerging in [his] new collection of poems, such as the complications, especially the moral complications of the movement toward racial justice and of parenthood.” Furthermore, he relays that he was heavily influenced by the creative energy that surrounded him in Manhattanville’s literary and artistic community.
Wayne Miller, American poet and professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, judged the award and described Pollock’s work as “one of those rare collections of poems that keeps opening and opening as you read it” due to its “consistent embrace of complexity and unresolvability.”
Pollock being recognized for this work is an incredible honor:
“I’m encouraged by Wayne Miller’s recognition of my work, especially his thoughtful commendation note, as well as by being included in the same breath as poets such as finalists Deborah Paredez and Paul Tran. I find being a poet in this moment exciting, and the vibrancy of American poetry today demands that contemporary poets work at a high level. The di Castagnola Award tells me I’m coming close to the mark as I work to put the finishing touches on my next collection of poems.”
A video recording of Pollock reading his poem, “Danse Printemps et Quarantaine,” is available through the Poetry Society of America and can be viewed on YouTube. To learn more about the MFA in Creative Writing at Manhattanville, contact MFA@mville.edu.
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