FAYETTEVILLE -- A Wisconsin professor has been named the winner of the 2020 Miller Williams Poetry Prize.
Jayson Iwen, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, will receive a $5,000 prize and have his poetry collection, Roze & Blud, published by the University of Arkansas Press.
Iwen teaches writing and is also the co-translator of a book of poetry originally written in Arabic by Lebanese poet Jawdat Fakhreddine.
In comments published on the University of Wisconsin-Superior website, Iwen described his forthcoming book as split between the perspective of two characters, one a teenage girl growing up in a trailer park and the other a retired Vietnam veteran.
"These are familiar stories, but you don't hear about them in the media much," Iwen said, according to remarks published on the University of Wisconsin-Superior website.
The Miller Williams Poetry Prize is edited by former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins.
Metro on 08/31/2019