Los Angeles Press Club Award

“It is difficult / to get the news from poems / yet men die miserably every day / for lack / of what is found there,” William Carlos Williams famously writes in “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower.” It’s a line I’m fond of quoting, which makes the following that much more surreal. On December 3, 2023, the Los Angeles Press Club awarded my essay, “How Is a Poem Like a Political Campaign?” their first prize in Commentary Analysis/Trend in Other Arts during their ceremony for the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards. I’m grateful to Eryn Brown and the good folks at Zócalo Public Square for nominating the essay.

Here’s a picture of the bling. My only regret is that I didn’t get to meet the “Distinguished Storyteller” recipients—Roger Corman and Levar Burton.