Sonia Sanchez wins $80,000 Jackson Poetry Prize
Sonia Sanchez has received the Jackson Poetry Prize, an $80,000 award that continues a recent wave of lifetime achievement honors for the 87-year-old poet, educator and activist
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Sonia Sanchez has received the Jackson Poetry Prize, an $80,000 award that continues a recent wave of lifetime achievement honors for the 87-year-old poet, educator and activist.
Her award was announced Tuesday by Poets & Writers ( https://www.pw.org ), the publisher of Poets & Writers magazine.
“Over her 7-decade career, Sonia Sanchez has distinguished herself as a major figure in American letters," the judges' citation reads in part. “Her vast and commanding oeuvre of published poetry invokes the power and revolutionary properties of language itself — intoning the struggles and joys of entire communities while reinvigorating traditional forms.”
Since 2018, Sanchez has also received the Wallace Stevens Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award, the Dorothy & Lillian Gish Prize and the Edward MacDowell Medal.
Sanchez was a founding member of the Black Arts Movement in the late 1960s and is widely regarded as a pioneering teacher of Black studies. Her poetry collections include “Homecoming,” “Love Poems” and “Shake Loose My Skin.”