UA Author Wins Emily Clark Balch Prize for Poetry

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Dr. Hank Lazer has been chosen to receive the Emily Clark Balch Prize for the best poetry published in the Virginia Quarterly Review in 2003. Lazer is The University of Alabama’s assistant vice president for undergraduate programs and services and a professor of English.

Lazer’s poem “Prayer” – the first poem in the series “The New Spirit” – was selected. Other poems from “The New Spirit” have appeared in “Another South: Experimental Writing in the South,” published by the University of Alabama Press in 2003.

The Emily Clark Balch Prizes were established in 1955. The Balch Prize is presented by the Virginia Quarterly Review of the University of Virginia to honor the best short story, poem and essay published each year in VQR.

Lazer says he has continued his long-standing commitment to experimental writing with this poem, which also explores spirituality through language and the musical flow of the stanzas.

“It’s very easy to apply tired, formulaic approaches and words to spirituality. I worry that clichéd spiritual writing debases spiritual experience and betrays the freshness and surprise of such experiences.” Lazer said. “Over the last seven to eight years I’ve been looking at fresh ways to approach the subject and to seek out new ways to engage the subject matter. The resources of jazz and blues have been crucial in this exploration, particularly in the poem “Prayer.””

Lazer’s most recent book of poetry “Elegies & Vacations” is available in the UA Supply Store. It is his 11th book of poetry and his fourth large collection of poetry, following “Days” (Lavender Ink, 2002), “3 of 10” (Chax Press, 1996), and “Doublespace: Poems 1971-1989” (Segue, 1992).

Previous recipients of the Balch Prize in poetry include Hayden Carruth, John Berryman, Wendell Berry, Donald Hall, Carolyn Forche, Larissa Szporluk and Lisa Russ Spaar.