Poems for the Millennium, volume 3, Wins an American Book Award

In advance of an official announcement, this is to report that Poems for the Millennium, volume 3: The University of California Book of Romantic and Postromantic Poetry, edited by myself and Jeffrey Robinson, will receive a 2010 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. It’s my understanding that there will be thirteen such awards over all, including Amiri Baraka’s Digging: The Afro-American Soul of American Classical Music and Dave Eggers’ non-fiction narrative Zeitoun, as well as a lifetime achievement award for our old comrade-in-poetry Quincy Troupe.

The nominating statement for Poems for the Millennium reads as follows:

“Modernism rejected Romanticism in the way that one political leader rejects another—not because it is any different but because it wishes to win the same audience. This book demonstrates that the only thing that happened in Modernism was that a door opened onto still another aspect of the immense cultural experiment that Romanticism was—or as Rothenberg and Robinson might insist, as Romanticisms were (are). Central issues were what Rousseau called conscience de soi, self-awareness (but a self-awareness which deliberately did not separate itself from ‘world’), a new interest in ethnicity and the local, and a shift from thinking of poetry as a ‘craft’ and of the poet as ‘maker,’ to thinking of it as a provoker of consciousness—even a creator of consciousness—and of the poet as Bard, Shaman. To know the work so carefully, lovingly and brilliantly assembled in this book is to know ourselves in a new and newly conscious way.”

A note on the Before Columbus Foundation and the American Book Award is also worth including here. Founded in 1976 by Ishmael Reed, Victor Hernández Cruz, Rudolfo Anaya, and others, the Before Columbus Foundation’s long-term strategy has been to promote "a multi-ethnic” and “pan-cultural view of America,” especially through the promotion of “multicultural writers.” This led two years later to the establishment of the American Book Award, for which the following statement acts as a kind of official history and manifesto:

“America was intended to be a place where freedom from discrimination was the means by which equality was achieved. Today, American culture is the most diverse ever on the face of this earth. Recognizing literary excellence demands a panoramic perspective. A narrow view strictly to the mainstream ignores all the tributaries that feed it. American literature is not one tradition but all traditions. From those who have been here for thousands of years to the most recent immigrants, we are all contributing to American culture. We are all being translated into a new language. Everyone should know by now that Columbus did not ‘discover’ America. Rather, we are all still discovering America-and we must continue to do so.

“The Before Columbus Foundation was founded in 1976 as a nonprofit educational and service organization dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of contemporary American multicultural literature. The goals of BCF are to provide recognition and a wider audience for the wealth of cultural and ethnic diversity that constitutes American writing. BCF has always employed the term ‘multicultural’ not as a description of an aspect of American literature, but as a definition of all American literature. BCF believes that the ingredients of America’s so-called ‘melting pot’ are not only distinct, but integral to the unique constitution of American Culture-the whole comprises the parts.

“In 1978, the Board of Directors of BCF (authors, editors, and publishers representing the multicultural diversity of American Literature) decided that one of its programs should be a book award that would, for the first time, respect and honor excellence in American literature without restriction or bias with regard to race, sex, creed, cultural origin, size of press or ad budget, or even genre. There would be no requirements, restrictions, limitations, or second places. There would be no categories (i.e., no ‘best’ novel or only one ‘best’ of anything). The winners would not be selected by any set quota for diversity (nor would ‘mainstream white anglo male’ authors be excluded), because diversity happens naturally. Finally, there would be no losers, only winners. The only criteria would be outstanding contribution to American literature in the opinion of the judges.

“All winners are accorded equal standing. Their publishers are also to be honored for both their commitment to quality and their willingness to take the risks that accompany publishing outstanding books and authors that may not prove ‘cost-effective’ in the short run. There are special Award designations (such as Lifetime Achievement) for contributions to American literature beyond a recently published book. The American Book Awards Program is not associated with any industry group or trade organization. The American Book Awards offer no cash prize nor do they require any financial commitments from the authors or their publishers. The Award winners are nominated and selected by a panel of writers, editors, and publishers who also represent the diversity of American literary culture.”

An awards ceremony and reception will take place on Sunday, September 19th from 1-4 p.m. at the Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA. A reception will take place following the ceremony. Free and open to the public.

Addenda. The following is the complete list of award recipients, just released:

Amiri Baraka, Digging: The Afro-American Soul of American Classical Music (University of California Press)
Sherwin Bitsui, Flood Song (Copper Canyon Press)
Nancy Carnevale, A New Language, A New World: Italian Immigrants in the United States, 1890-1945 (University of Illinois Press)
Dave Eggers, Zeitoun (McSweeney’s/Vintage)
Sesshu Foster, World Ball Notebook (City Lights)
Stephen D. Gutierrez, Live from Fresno y Los (Bear Star Press)
Victor Lavalle, The Big Machine (Spiegel & Grau)
François Mandeville, This Is What They Say, translated from the Chipewyan by Ron Scollon (University of Washington Press)
Bich Minh Nguyen, Short Girls (Viking)
Franklin Rosemont and Robin D.G. Kelley, editors, Black, Brown & Beige: Surrealist Writings from Africa and the Diaspora (University of Texas)
Jerome Rothenberg and Jeffrey C. Robinson, editors, Poems for the Millennium: Volume Three: The University of California Book of Romantic & Postromantic Poetry (University of California Press)
Kathryn Waddell Takara, Pacific Raven: Hawai`i Poems (Pacific Raven Press)
Pamela Uschuk, Crazy Love: New Poems (Wings Press)
Lifetime Achievement:
Quincy Troupe
Katha Pollitt