The Academy of American Poets has announced the winners of its annual major prizes, and David Wojahn (BA 1976) has been awarded the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, which honors the most outstanding book of poetry published in the United States in the previous year. Of Wojahn's 2011 collection World Tree (University of Pittsburgh), judge Linda Gregerson noted: "Exquisitely cadenced, politically astute, large of heart, and keen of mind, these are poems of extraordinary moral penetration. They are also a joy to read." Wojahn will receive $25,000. The other judges were David St. John and current U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey. Wojahn is a professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University and serves as a member of the program faculty of the MFA in Writing Program of Vermont College of the Fine Arts. World Tree represents his eighth collection of poetry. He studied with Michael Dennis Browne while at the University of Minnesota.
