The editors of Narrative have awarded Paisley Rekdal (CRF 2017) the Narrative Prize, given annually for the best work by an emerging writer published in Narrative. Rekdal, who grew up in Seattle and now teaches at the University of Utah, receives the award for a trilogy of recent poems—“Quiver,” “Telling the Wasps,” and “The Olive Tree at Vouves,” which combine Keatsian lyricism with a mortal questioning of the nature of memory in the modern age.
In giving the award to Rekdal, Narrative’s poetry editor Michael Wiegers noted, “Rekdal revivifies the possibility of the public intellectual. Her poems are groundbreaking investigations—and reinterpretations—of long-treasured Western myths that she infuses with personal urgency and meaning. Already a force in American literature, Rekdal will delight and engage readers’ minds and hearts for decades to come.”
Rekdal, the daughter of a Chinese American mother and a Norwegian father, has lived in many countries, including France, South Korea, Ireland, and Vietnam, and her work embraces a diverse, multicultural view. She earned a BA from the University of Washington, an MA from the University of Toronto, and an MFA from the University of Michigan. She is the author of several poetry collections, including Six Girls without Pants and A Crash of Rhinos, as well as a collection of essays, The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee. She is Utah’s Poet Laureate.