Bloomfield College Alumnus Wins Most Outstanding Book of Poetry of the Year

Eng副教授Patrick Rosal 96,现在lish at Rutgers University-Camden, is the author of four full-length poetry books. His latest collection of poems,Brooklyn Antediluvian(Persea Books 2016), is the winner of the 2017 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets. The $25,000 award recognizes the most outstanding book of poetry published in the United States in the previous year.

In Brooklyn Antediluvian, Rosal addresses questions of race and race relations in America. In the poetry collection, he explores his identity and experiences as a Filipino American, traversing his childhood growing up in North Jersey and his family's roots from home to the Philippines.

According to Rosal, the book is a reflection on the aftermaths of historical ecological crises, such as hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, and Tropical Storm Ondoy in the Philippines, as well as the figurative 'floods' that have affected him personally, such as gentrification in Brooklyn, and the emotion that washed over him as he learned to cope with heartache and loss.

His previous work,Boneshepherds(2011) was named a small press highlight by the National Book Critics Circle and a notable book by the Academy of American Poets. His collections - which also includeMy American Kundiman(2006), andUprock Headspin ScrambleandDive(2003) - have been honored with the Association of Asian American Studies Book Award, Global Filipino Literary Award, and the Asian American Writers Workshop Members' Choice Award.

Rosal earned a bachelor's degree in English from Bloomfield College and a master of fine arts degree in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College. Now employed with Rutgers, has also taught college and high-school level poetry, creative writing, and performance classes and workshops all over the country.

The 2017 John Simon Guggenheim Poetry Fellow and Lucas Art Fellow, and former Fulbright Fellow to the Philippines, is the first Asian American to win the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize.